As Still as a Shooting Star
by toadstoolteaparty
Summary: He used the last of his strength to open the Ark, but were it was opening to, he didn't know; he was losing awareness fast and the Ark had not completely connected. But they had no choice: the level 4s were about to attack again.
1. Chapter 1

Yay! The very first chapter of my very first fanfic! ^_^

DGrayman and characters © Katsura Hoshino

Treasure Planet and characters © Disney

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><p>The three level 4s were too strong all together. Allen held an unconscious Kanda on his left side, his arm wrapped around the exorcist's waist to keep from dropping him. On his right side, he was supporting Lavi, who was severely injured to the point where he could barely walk on his own. Lenalee struggled to support Lavi's other side, seeing as Allen was already completely carrying Kanda.<p>

Allen hurried to open the Ark before he completely lost consciousness. He couldn't keep his mind straight. He rushed from one thought to the other as panic was quickly overwhelming him. He used the last of his strength to open the Ark, but were it was opening to, he didn't know; he was losing awareness fast and the Ark had not completely connected. But they had no choice: the level 4s were about to attack again. Lenalee nearly pushed the three boys into the glowing gateway, seeing as she had more strength left than they did.

.*.*.*.*.*.*

At first it was dark. Where were they?

_Sssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh_

Rain.

It was pouring.

Lenalee slowly opened her eyes and tried to focus them. The terrain was rough, rocky. A pool of water, maybe a foot deep, collected on a slope to the right of her, maybe ten yards away? She couldn't tell. The only light came from the lightning that flashed every few seconds. Through the flickers of light, she could see her friends scattered around. Kanda was a few feet away leaning up against a large rock. Lavi lay on the drenched ground about three yards away. They were both unconscious. Lenalee looked around desperately. Where was Allen?

She slowly got up from the wet soil. Her legs felt like they would give way any moment. Glancing around in what faint light there was, she spotted Allen. He was part way in the pool of rainwater she noticed a moment ago. She ran to him, although it was more of a hurried limping. Carefully pulling him out of the water, she watched as his chest slowly moved up and down. He was still alive. She sighed with relief. But it wasn't over yet.

"Allen!" she said. "Can you hear me?"

A slight mumble came from Allen. He was barely aware of what was going on. Lenalee looked him over. He had cuts all over his face and arms. His uniform was torn at the left shoulder, ripped over his chest and down his side. He was covered in bruises, mainly on his chest and face. She figured he probably had a few broken bones too.

Lenalee struggled to carry Allen back over to where the others were. She leaned him up against the big rock, right next to Kanda. _It's a good thing they're both unconscious otherwise they'd be arguing like crazy right now_, she thought, although she did wish they would wake up soon. She then went to bring Lavi a bit closer. Judging by how fast the water in the pool was rising, she realized that if the rain kept up like this, they would be a foot under water in no more than an hour. She made sure the three boys were propped up, not knowing how long they would be here- after all they survived through, it would really suck if they drowned in rain water now.

Lenalee was falling in and out of consciousness. It was still raining and the three boys still had not moved. They were all severely injured. She had to find help… if there was any to be found, that is.

.*.*.*.*.*.*

Jim looked out the window from his room on the second floor of his mom's inn. It was still raining.

"Jim!" called a female voice from downstairs. "Can you come down and clean up the tables for me?"

It was his mom, Sarah Hawkins.

"I guess," he mumbled to himself. Then he replied a bit louder so she could hear him, "I'll be down in a few minutes!"

The rain hit his window rapidly, not allowing for the slightest moment of silence to peek its way through. He stared out the glass, trying to focus on what was outside through the dripping water. The lightning provided a slight amount of light, enough to make out shapes and some colors, although not very many details.

His mind wandered around randomly. He thought about last summer, when he had been on a ship for months looking for the legendary Treasure Planet. That was the first time he ever really felt like he had done something important, something meaningful. That was 4 months ago. He wondered if he would ever see Silver again.

His mind faded back to the present. He continued to stare out into the darkness outside. Then he saw something move.

He couldn't make out what it was. The water was dripping down the window making it very hard to focus on what he was looking at. Then, getting a little anxious, he opened the window so he could see a bit better. The wind blew the rain into his room and he was soon dampened on his front, which was facing towards the source of the water. He stuck his head out the window and squinted to keep the rain from getting in his eyes.

After glancing around for a few seconds, he finally found what was moving a few moments ago. But it was no longer moving. The lightning flashed really bright this time and he finally realized what it was that he saw. It was a person, lying in the mud, in a position that seemed as if maybe the person had tripped.

Jim hastily ran downstairs.

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><p>I am actually really pleased with how this turned out so far ^_^<p>

How do you think it's going so far? Please review! It will make me happy!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 is finished!

So far the story has just been kinda dark and dreary and filled with blood and gore. hahaha ^_^ dont worry, I'm not planning on leaving it like that. I'm hoping to add humor too. Im not too sure about focusing on pairings though: i might just stay away from that.

Also, it seems as if Lenalee is gonna be the main character of the story, but I'm planning on having each character have an equally main part: cuz if i was writing this story about one specific character, it would defiately be Lavi, cuz he's my favorite :3 So it wont be in Lenalee's point of view the entire time, it will probably switch from character to character

anyways im not completely sure what im gonna be doing for the future chapters of this fanfic, so if anyone has any ideas they would like to share, please do!

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><p>Lenalee slowly walked along what looked like a dirt road, although, being as there was so much mud, she wasn't sure if it even really was a road. Allen, Kanda, and Lavi were in really bad condition. She knew she had to find help. Leaving them against the big rock where they had been the past hour, Lenalee began her search.<p>

She panicked. _Where are we? What if I can't find help? What will happen to everyone? I can't lose anymore friends…_ tears ran down her cheeks, although with the rain they were hardly noticeable. Her breathing was heavy. She was getting tired and her legs were hurting worse. She stopped and looked around.

_There's nothing but rocks!_ She thought. For about a mile now she had been carefully following the edge of a cliff. She followed her gaze along that cliff. In the distance she could see a few faint lights. They weren't very bright, and there weren't very many, but they were there.

_There has to be someone there who can help!_ She felt slightly relieved. She started walking a bit faster. She was about 30 yards away from the lights when, suddenly, a sharp pain shot up her legs. She fell into the mud. She couldn't move, exhaustion overwhelming her.

_Allen… Lavi… Kanda… please just wait a little bit longer._

She drifted out of consciousness.

*.*.*.*.

Jim darted down the stairs. He ran through the hallway and into the dining room, which was in the front room of the inn. He was in such a hurry that he almost ran into his mom as she stepped out from the kitchen.

"Whoa! What are you doing?" She said, a little startled. He ran past her and was just about to the door when she yelled, "where are you going?"

"There's someone out there!" he said so fast that Sarah barely understood. He ran out the door, not bothering to shut it behind him.

"Jim!" Sarah called. She ran out after him.

The rain was pouring down hard. Jim ran hastily towards the body, nearly slipping a few times. He finally made it over to the person he had seen from his window.

It was a girl. Jim knelt down to feel her pulse. She was still alive.

Sarah finally caught up.

"Oh my…" she started. "Is she…?"

"She's still alive. Miss?" Jim said to the girl. "Can you hear me?"

He waited for a few seconds. The girl was breathing heavily. She was injured and needed medical attention. Jim picked her up, one arm under her shoulders and the other under her legs to support her- basically the stereotypical way a boy would carry a girl.

He carried her inside and laid her on a small couch that was against the wall in the front room. Sarah quickly grabbed another lantern (since there was only one in the room at the moment and it wasn't very bright) and stood beside Jim as they examined the girl.

She couldn't have been any older than Jim. She had short black hair with a small red clip holding one side up out of her face, although her hair was so wild and messy that the clip didn't do much- her hair was soaked and matted to her face. She wore a black coat with red trimmings and a crest on the left side of her chest. Jim wondered if it was some kind of uniform. She had on a red skirt to match. Both the jacket and skirt were ripped and soiled with blood and dirt. On her feet she wore black flats. Around her ankles were rings… as red as blood.

Sarah's motherly instincts kicked in as she rushed to the kitchen to get some medical supplies. Jim sat on a small stool next to the girl.

"Miss?" he said to her again.

The girl suddenly opened her eyes in panic and jolted to a sitting position.

"Please help them!" she started to cry. "I can't lose anyone else…"

Jim was a bit confused at first, being startled by her sudden waking up. Then his mind cleared: _there were more people out there?_

"How many more are out there?" he asked the girl.

"…three" She whispered.

Sarah came back into the room. She was carrying a small bucket of water with one hand, and in her other arm, she held a cloth and some bandages. She was surprised to see that the girl had woken up. As she set the bucket on the ground next to the couch, Jim stood up.

"Where's the doc?" Jim asked his mother.

"Upstairs in one of the guest rooms… Jim? What are you doing?" Her tone was panicked. Jim ran upstairs and in less than a minute he was back, and with him was a half-asleep Dr. Delbert Doppler.

"There's more people out there," Jim said as he put on his coat; not that it would help much, for he was already soaked.

Doppler looked over to Sarah, at the girl, and then back to Sarah. He wasn't sure what exactly was going on, but he threw on his jacket anyways and hurried to catch up to Jim as he rushed out the door.

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><p>Thanks for reading! What do you think? Am i writing ok? (Grammer, vocabulary, imagery, phrase wording? Cuz I'm usually not a very good writer... or at least with essays for school anyways lol)<p>

please review! Hugs for everyone!


	3. Chapter 3

_So i had written this earlier in the week and i had wanted to add more to it before i uploaded it. But, i havent had any inspiration to write a bit more on this chapter, so rather than making you guys wait for a longer chapter, I'll just give you this shorter one right now. I am hoping to write more this weekend, so i may add another chapter tomorow._

_as for how often Im gonna be updating, I'm hoping to add at least one chapter every weekend, if not more. Once school lets out, I might update in the middle of the week too._

DGrayMan (c) Katsura Hoshino

Treasure Planet (c) Disney

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><p><em>The level 4s began to attack. One lifted its arms as they transformed into machine guns. The others imitated the first one. They were all aiming at him… as if they were actually smart enough to just focus on one exorcist at a time.<em>

_There was a bright light._

_Then everything went black._

Kanda woke with a start. He slightly remembered Beansprout yelling and picking him up. He didn't remember anything after that. _I must have passed out…_ Taking that many hits at once from that many level 4 Akuma couldn't be good. Although he had healed quickly, it was still slower than usual. _Where the hell are we? _He thought as he looked around. He was leaning against a large rock. Next to him was Allen, and on the other side of Allen was Lavi. Both of them were still unconscious. _Where's Lenalee?_ He didn't see her anywhere, although he couldn't see much of anything except what was less than five feet around him. _Shit._ He ached all over, although most of his serious wounds were gone.

Kanda closed his eyes and sat there for a bit.

Then he heard a noise. There was someone coming. Two people actually. Neither of them were Lenalee. The footsteps were too heavy to be her.

Reaching for Mugen, he slowly stood up.

*.*.*.*.*.

The rain had stopped. The girl's tracks were easily noticeable in the mud, so following them wouldn't be much of a problem.

Jim and Doppler ran along the path. Doppler nearly tripped a few times. The lantern Jim carried didn't help much. It only allowed them to see a few extra feet ahead.

"Jim, I can't see a thing in this dreaded lighting! What exactly are we looking for anyway? You know I-,"

"Shhh!"

"Wha-," Jim covered Doppler's mouth with his hand.

Jim took a few steps forward. Suddenly, something touched his neck. He looked down to see a thin blade, the lantern slightly reflecting on it. _Pirates? _Nervously swallowing, he took a slight step backwards.

"What are you doing here?" The voice was deep, although definitely not as deep as Mr. Arrow's had been, was definitely male, and had an easily noticeable angry tone that seemed to fit the voice naturally.

"Uh-," Jim said in a panicked voice, "someone came to us and needed help and said she had friends that needed help and she wanted us to find them I swear!" Obviously panicking, Jim's sentence just kind of jumbled together. It wasn't like having a sword to your throat was something to be calm about!

The man seemed content with Jim's answer; for he lowered his sword and slid it back into what Jim assumed was its sheath.

The man walked away. In the direction he was walking, Jim could slightly see a silhouette of a large rock. _There must be something over there_, Jim thought. Carrying the dim lantern, Jim and Doppler followed the man, not saying a word; afraid to, in fact, because of the man's bitter tone a second ago.

After walking about 10 yards, the three of them stood in front of a large rock. Leaning against it were two people. Jim and Doppler saw that these two people were also male. Although it was dark, Jim could still make out a few features on these two boys. The one had red hair that was up in a headband and an eye patch. The other, Jim observed, had white hair and a scar across his left eye. Now that were closer to the man, they could see that he had long black hair, put up in a high ponytail. Jim noticed that they were all wearing similar uniforms to what the girl was wearing, and they were all covered in dirt, blood, and injuries.

The man with the black hair knelt toward the white-haired boy.

"Hey. Beansprout. We're leaving;" he said to the boy in an irritated tone. The boy mumbled slightly. The black-haired man lifted up the boy's arm and wrapped it around his shoulder. Then he wrapped his own arm around the boy's waist and lifted him up.

Looking over at Jim and Doppler, he slightly nodded toward the red-haired boy. Jim followed the man's example and tried lifting up the red-head. Seeing that Jim couldn't carry the dead-weight by himself, Doppler grabbed the boy's other arm. Jim wasn't sure, but he thought he saw the man roll his eyes.

The man allowed Jim and Doppler to lead the way, bitterly accepting the fact that he had no idea where they were going.

Jim led the way up the muddy trail they had come from, struggling to carry the red-head. _That other guy's gotta be really strong or something_, Jim thought as he observed that the man seemed to have no trouble carrying the other boy. Even with Doppler helping him, Jim thought carrying just one person was hard enough; this guy was a lot heavier than the girl, although he was still very thin. Jim figured the guy probably had a lot of muscle.

It was about 45 minutes later when they came into view of the inn.

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><p>Let me know if you spot any errors so i can fix them, cuz i didnt reread it after i uploaded the document, so i dont know if it automatically changed anything or not.<p>

please review! hugs for everyone!


	4. Chapter 4

Ok, so, first off I have a few side notes that I keep forgetting to add.

This takes place after Timothy joins the Order in DGM and a few months after the Treasure Planet movie.

Also, I'm planning on doing a comic/manga version of this fanfic that I will be uploading to my deviantart. I probably will not start that until I get a few chapters more into it, but when I do, would you guys prefer it to read from left to right or from right to left?

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><p>Kanda followed the two people up the muddy road. The one looked about his age. He had short brown hair with bangs that hung partway over his eyes. He wore a dark brown jacket over a yellowish light brown shirt. His pants were a pale shade of dark green. His boots were black with orange-red trimming. The other, who was wearing a trench coat over his pajamas, wasn't even human. Kanda thought he looked almost like a dog with human posture. <em>Who the hell are these people..? <em>Judging by the boy's explanation, Kanda knew that Lenalee must have asked these people for help. Even though he was unconscious, Allen's eye would have activated if they were Akuma, so Kanda didn't bother to distrust them. As much as he hated to admit it, they needed help.

A few times they had all stopped to adjust their hold on the two exorcists. Kanda cursed under his breath when some of the pain in his chest started to come back, the other two not seeming to notice.

After walking a few more yards, a faint light came into view. In fact, there were several lights, and they were stacked on different levels, allowing Kanda to recognize it as a building. He figured it was where they were heading, since it seemed to be the only building around.

When they got closer to the structure, Kanda saw that a woman was standing in the doorway, wearing a concerned expression on her face.

*.*.*.*.*.

Sarah sat next to the girl, who had fallen back asleep after Jim and Doppler left. _I wonder how much longer they'll be, _she worried. The girl slightly shifted on the couch. The bandages Sarah had put on her were soaked in blood. She picked up the towel that she had used to wash the blood and dirt off the girl, put it in the small bucket of water, and brought it back to the kitchen. Grabbing a few more bandages, she returned to the girl's side. _What happened to her? _She wondered as she took of the blood-soaked bandages and replaced them with fresh ones. The bleeding had stopped, and the girls breathing evened out.

Sarah got up and walked to the door. She stood there staring up at the blinking stars for a few minutes. Then she noticed a light. It was very faint, but moving. _That must be them, _she thought, filled with relief and concern at the same time.

Jim and Doppler led the way into the dim-lit doorway where Sarah Hawkins stood. She saw that in between them they carried an unconscious boy, who Sarah thought looked about Jim's age. Behind them was another man, who also carried an unconscious person. All three of the new people wore similar uniforms to what the girl was wearing, and they were all just as badly injured, if not worse.

"Found 'em," Jim said with a slight laugh in his voice, wanting to ease his mother's anxiety.

"Here, lay them down over here," she said as she led them over to a few more couches that were in the room. I was the lobby of the inn, after all.

Doppler and Jim lowered the red-head on one of the couches. Sarah tried to help the man lay down the white haired boy, but the man already got the boy down on the couch before she was even able to approach them.

"You should sit down too. You're injured!" She urged him.

"I'm fine," the man replied, his voice much calmer than it had been earlier.

"How is she?" Jim asked his mother.

"She's asleep. Her legs are badly injured, but other than that, she does seem to be doing better," Sarah said as she led them over to where the girl was.

The man knelt next to the girl.

"Lenalee," he said.

The girl opened her eyes.

"Kanda!" She began to cry.

"Che. You're an idiot," He said in a bitter, yet caring, tone. Jim didn't think it was possible to have both those feelings at the same time. "You know Komui would kill us if something happened to you, right?"

The girl, Lenalee, jolted up and hugged the man, Kanda, was it? Tears flowed down her face. She had been so worried about losing her friends.

Kanda didn't like the girl's embrace, but he didn't shrug her off.

"Allen? Lavi? Where are they? Are they ok?" She started to panic again.

"They're fine," he said calmly, leaving out the part about them both still being unconscious.

"But where are they?"

"There over there," he said as he gestured toward the couched across the room.

Lenalee started to get up, but Kanda held her down.

"You need to rest," he said.

She nodded, but then said to him, "So do you…"

Kanda got up and turned toward the people who had helped them.

"We should move them all to the guest bedrooms," Sarah said.

Kanda nodded. Picking up Lenalee in his arms, he followed Mrs. Hawkins up the stairs. Jim and Doppler trailed behind them with the red haired boy whom they had carried before. Sarah passed two doors and entered the third on the right side.

Inside the room was a small bed, big enough for one person, or possibly two children. Next to the bed was a nightstand that held a dimly-lit lantern. On the other side of the room were a small dresser and a chair. Kanda gently laid Lenalee down on the small bed.

Sarah walked out of the room and told Jim and Doppler to put the boy in the room next to Lenalee's.

*.*.*.*.*.

Kanda walked back down the stairs, but as he did, he heard something. A slight whirling sound was coming from the side of the room where Allen lay.

_Shit!_

Allen's eye was activated.

A bright light flashed through the window, and the explosion audible.

"What was that?" Doppler yelled. He, Jim and Sarah had come back down stairs, a panicked expression on all of their faces.

"Stay here," Kanda said, running out the door and disappearing into the darkness.

"What the…?" Jim said, startled.

Kanda quickly glanced around, searching for the Akuma.

"Hehehe… o~ver here," came a voice from behind him.

"Che," He whirled around, slashing the akuma in half with Mugen. The akuma exploded. It was only a level two. _How had they found us that quickly? _He wondered, walking back into the inn.

"What the hell was that?" Jim asked.

"An akuma," Kanda replied, his tone flat. None of the others knew what an akuma was, but Jim figured that was the best answer he was going to get for now.

Sarah stood over the white-haired boy, whose eye started to deactivate.

"What just happened to his eye? Is he alright?" she was concerned, yet very frightened.

"He's fine," Kanda replied, picking the boy up. He carried Allen into the room where the others had put Lavi. The room was bigger than Lenalee's room, having 3 twin beds in it, a night stand next to each bed, and a chest at the foot of each bed, most likely in place of a dresser.

He set Allen down on the bed next to Lavi. He stood there for a few minutes when he heard a knock on the door frame (the door was already open). It was the woman.

She once again had her hands full with bandages, towels, and a bucket of water.

"Here," she said, handing Kanda a wet towel.

He nodded to thank her, but didn't speak.

She began to tend to the other boys' wounds, starting with the white-haired boy. _What had happened to these kids? None of them could be much older than Jim,_ she thought.

"Sarah Hawkins," she said, trying to start a conversation. "The boy downstairs is my son, Jim. The other man is a friend of mine, Doctor Dilbert Doppler."

The man didn't reply, although Sarah could tell by the look on his face that he was listening.

"You're name is Kanda, right? And the girl is Lenalee?" she asked, recalling the two earlier. Sarah moved over to the other boy.

He nodded his head. She had hoped he would tell her the names of the other two boys, but Kanda remained silent, so she decided to just ask.

"What are their names?" she asked, as she wrapped the red-head's arm with a bandage.

He remained silent for a few moments, but then answered her, "The one in front of you is Lavi. The other's Allen."

She could tell he didn't want to talk. She left the room. A few minutes later she came back, holding a tray with some bread and fruit on it. She set it on the night stand closest to the door.

"You should get some rest too," she said.

Sarah left the room, closing the door behind her.

Kanda stood there for a few minutes. He ached all over.

He laid down on the bed left for him and closed his eyes.

* * *

><p>yay for more dialogue and longer chapter!<p>

I didnt revise this after uploading the document, so if you see any mistakes, please let me know so i can fix them.

Also, thanks to Animejessie for catching that i had completely forgotten to even mention them treating Allen's injuries, so i fixed it and added that part in.

In case anyone was wondering, the only pairings that will be in here will be AllenXLenalee and DopplerXAmelia, but they will not be main parts of the story.

Thanks for reading! Please review! Reviews give me inspiration for writing more!

*hugs*


	5. Chapter 5

Here ya go! Sorry, i was gonna upload this friday night, but then i decided to make it longer, but then i didnt and i didnt have much inspiration so this is the same as it would have been if i would have uploaded it friday. lol thats definately a run-on sentence

anyways, enjoy!

dgm (c) Katsura Hoshino

Treasure Planet (c) Disney

* * *

><p>Kanda woke. It took him a few moments to realize where he was. Sitting up in his bed, Kanda looked over at Allen and Lavi. They were both still sleeping.<p>

The room was brighter than it had been the night before. Light shone through the window, allowing him to get a better view of his surroundings. On the walls were really old-looking maps. He didn't recognize any of the places the maps showed. The floor had on it a round fraying carpet with a long streak across it, following the path of the sun through the window, where the colors had faded.

Next to him sat some clothes, neatly folded on top of the nightstand beside his bed. Kanda picked up the white, collared shirt and black pants. He doubted they would fit him, but because his uniform was torn and stained with blood and dirt, he tried them on anyways. The shirt was a bit long, but the pants fit perfectly.

After changing his clothes, Kanda walked over to the window and looked outside. The second-floor window gave him a generally good view of what he was unable to see last night. The path they had followed was in fact a dirt road, still a bit muddy from last night's storm. The inn was built on the side of a cliff, with what looked like a ship-yard built off the edge. _There's no water… _he thought as he wondered why they would possibly build a dock on the edge of a cliff.

Looking up at the sky, the exorcist saw that the sun seemed to be much farther away than usual… and that other planets were slightly visible. _That's impossible!_ Where could they possibly be that the sky wouldn't look generally the same as it did just about everywhere he's been, which was practically all around the world?

_That's not really what I should be worrying about right now._

Kanda glanced over at Allen and Lavi, and then moved over to the door and opened it. He turned to his left and headed towards the room that Lenalee was in.

He knocked on the door, but no one answered, so he opened it. Lenalee wasn't there. On her bed sat her torn uniform, neatly folded as best as possible, considering its condition.

Kanda left the room and continued down the stairs. After exiting a small hallway, he entered into a large room. Now that it was morning, it was much easier to see the room, as light shone through the multiple windows. On the right side of the room were the couches and chairs he had seen last night. On the left side, there were several, maybe ten or more, round tables.

Sitting at one of the tables in the front of the room next to the window were four people. Kanda recognized the boy, Jim, with the dog-like man, Doppler, on one side of him, and Lenalee on the other. The fourth person, like Doppler, was not human. She had a cat-like appearance, or, at least, Kanda assumed she was female.

Lenalee was sitting with her back to Kanda, but seeing everyone look in the direction behind her, she turned around.

"Kanda!" She said, smiling. Kanda could see that her legs were bandaged, and leaning up against the back of her chair were crutches. She was wearing a dress similar to that of what Mrs. Hawkins wore, although it was not as long. He figured the reason the woman gave Lenalee a shorter dress was so she wouldn't trip on it.

"Ah, good! You're up. I see the clothes fit," Sarah Hawkins said kindly as she stepped out of the kitchen. She was carrying a tray of different breakfast foods. "Help yourselves," she said as she set the tray in the middle of the table. Then she walked over to one of the other tables and grabbed another chair. "Here ya' go," She said to Kanda, setting the chair down between Lenalee and the cat-like woman.

"Are Allen and Lavi still asleep?" Lenalee asked Kanda, although her tone showed that she already knew the answer. Kanda nodded to her as he sat down in the chair. She hid her disappointment behind a smile and tried to start a conversation as they ate their breakfast.

"Kanda, you already met Jim and Dr. Doppler. Um, this is Dr. Doppler's wife, Captain Amelia."

"Oh please, I'm off duty, just call me Amelia," the cat-like woman said kindly. She had sort of a strong accent and was very formal when she spoke.

Kanda nodded to her, not wanting to shake hands.

*.*.*.*.*.*.

Light shone through the window, illuminating the room.

Lavi opened his eye but quickly closed it again because of the brightness. He ached all over. Squinting, he turned his head and looked around. _Where am I?_ He saw that there was bed next to him, with a person asleep in it. It was Allen.

As he sat up, a sharp pain shot through his arm. He looked down to see that his arm was wrapped up in a splint.

_Heh._

Lavi leaned up against the headboard of the bed and closed his eye, thinking.

He opened his eye again and looked over at the bed on the other side of the room. On top of the sheets sat Kanda's folded uniform.

He saw that there were some clothes sitting on the nightstands next to his and Allen's beds. He figured the clothes were set out for them, so he picked up the button-down shirt on his nightstand. Realizing he wouldn't even be able to put it on with his broken arm, he just wrapped it around his shoulders, covering up some of the rips in his uniform.

The bookman looked over at Allen, who was covered in more blood-stained bandages than he was. _I'll let him rest some more, _Lavi thought as he left the room.

*.*.*.*.*.

Sarah came back into the dining room with a jug of water. Behind her trailed a bronze-colored robot, carrying a bunch of glass cups. He was swerving around so much that the others thought he would drop the glasses, but he didn't. He was laughing blissfully and rambling on about something, but he was talking so fast that no one listened; they couldn't understand what he was saying even if they tried.

Lenalee laughed happily at this. Kanda was getting rather irritated, but he suppressed his anger. Apparently Kanda wasn't the only one who was getting annoyed.

"Ben!" Jim yelled with a slight chuckle. "Shhh!"

"Sorry, Jimmy!" The robot said cheerfully. "It's just that there's been so much going on since last night, like that monster that showed up! And then this morning-"

"What's an akuma?" Jim asked Kanda, cutting off B.E.N.'s rambling before the topic went entirely off course.

Before either Kanda or Lenalee could answer, a new voice did.

"Akuma are machines created by the Millennium Earl and powered with human souls; the more they kill, the stronger they get." It was the boy with the red hair and eye patch.

"Lavi!" Lenalee yelled happily.

"Do you have to yell?" Kanda muttered under his breath, annoyed.

"Three up, one to go," Doppler chuckled.

Jim figured the topic of conversation just changed, so he didn't bother to ask any more questions right now.

Lavi walked toward the group, wincing a bit as he did, but still managed to give them a cheerful smile.

"Hey," he said to Lenalee, slightly waving with his good arm. Then he addressed Kanda, "Hello Yuu~!"

Kanda gave him a murderous glare.

Sarah brought over another chair and some more food. The table was getting a bit crowded, so Doppler and Amelia got up and continued to go about their day.

"How are you feeling?" Lenalee asked Lavi, obviously concerned.

"I'll live," he replied. "What about you? You don't look too good yourself."

Lenalee didn't answer at first, but then smiled and said, "I'll be fine."

Lavi knew she was upset. She hated not being able to walk on her own, especially after what had happened in the Ark a few months ago. She didn't like feeling useless, like she was a burden to the people around her.

After clearing some of the dishes off the table, Sarah sat down between Jim and Kanda.

"So," she gestured toward Lavi's black and red jacket underneath the shirt she gave him, "is that some kind of uniform?"

"Yep," Lavi replied with a smile, "we work for an organization, the Black Order, whose sole purpose is to collect a certain substance that can destroy akuma, and then, of course, destroy the akuma with that substance."

Sarah looked at him. He could tell her and Jim both wanted to know more.

"Sorry," Lavi apologized, "You see, technically I'm not allowed to tell you any more than that."

"Why not?" Jim asked as his mother gave him a disappointed glare for asking them more questions.

Lavi grinned. "Cuz it's a secret."

Kanda rolled his eyes.

"Although there's more than one reason, it's mainly because the more you know about the Black Order, the greater danger you are in from the Millennium Earl," Lenalee said. "We are all very grateful for your hospitality, and we would feel horrible is something bad happened to you because of us. The akuma that Kanda fought last night… the longer we stay here, the chances of more showing up become greater…"

"So as soon as Beansprout wakes up from his little nap, we're leaving," Kanda said bitterly as he stared out the window.

Lenalee glared at him. _He could at least TRY to act pleasant in front of the people who saved their lives!_

"So…" Jim asked, "How exactly did you guys yet here?"

"Well, if I do recall correctly, you, Doppler and Kanda did carry us here, am I right?" Lavi grinned. Jim looked at him with a glare that said, _well no shit,_ _that's not what I meant._

Lavi snickered. "All right, all right, no need to glare at me like that. Ya see, we were fighting some akuma, but the akuma were too strong. So, the only way we could escape with our lives was to use a certain teleportation device."

"But Allen is the only one who can control it," Lenalee continued, "and because of the bit of a time limit we had, being as there were so many akuma, we had to go through before it had fully connected to… well… wherever it was that Allen was connecting it to."

Jim was surprised to hear them mention a teleportation device. _Was it like the one that the map had opened on treasure planet?_ Before he could ask, Sarah started to talk again.

"So, your friend, Allen," She hesitated with the question. "That scar across his face… and what happened to his eye last night when the akuma showed up? It looked as if it was some sort of machine…"

"Heh" Lavi closed his eye solemnly, but then opened it again. He looked at her and smiled, "Why don't 'cha just ask him when he wakes up?"

* * *

><p>so, once again, let me know if there are any mistakes so i can fix them ^_^<p>

thanks for reading! Please review! *hugs*


	6. Chapter 6

Sorry this update is late! I had no inspiration to write last week. But, here's the next chapter.

School ends on Thursday, so most likely I will be able to either update more often, or at least make the chapters longer

* * *

><p>After breakfast, Kanda went outside to scout the area, while Lavi explored the Benbow Inn. Lenalee had wanted to walk around too, but both Lavi and Mrs. Hawkins insisted that she stay put and not strain her legs too much.<p>

"Relax," Lavi said with a smile, "It's not like we're all gonna disappear or something. Get some rest."

Lenalee looked at him in disappointment.

Lavi sighed. "Why don't 'cha check up on Allen," He suggested. "Give him some company- who knows? Maybe he'll wake up soon!"

Lenalee gave Lavi a weak smile and nodded. Lavi held out his hand to help her up and make sure she had hold of the crutches. Holding her arm to keep her balanced, the bookman lead Lenalee up the stairs to the room where Allen was. She sat on the bed that was intended for Lavi, seeing as it was right next to Allen's.

Lenalee stared solemnly at the wall, but her depression didn't go unnoticed.

"He'll be fine," Lavi said quietly, but then smiled and said, "After all, he always is."

Lenalee remained silent.

Lavi left the room, quietly shutting the door behind him. He stood there for a few moments as he heard Lenalee crying on the other side of the door.

_She's strong. But no one can hold their emotions in forever._

*.*.*.*.*.

Lavi went back downstairs and headed for the door. _I wonder where Yuu went._ As he stepped outside, he heard an explosion and then yelling. Being his first reaction to any kind of explosion, he ran around the building to the source of the noise. Jim was standing next to what looked like some kind of machine, and he was covered in black soot.

"Ben!" He yell at the robot, "I told you not to touch that!"

"Sorry Jimmy! No touchy; got it!"

Jim rolled his eyes and started to wipe the soot off his face.

"You alright?" Lavi asked with a grin as he walked up to them.

"Yeah," Jim replied, seeming a bit annoyed.

Lavi looked at the machine. It was a long platform, about five or six feet long and maybe one or two feet wide. On the left side of the platform lay a rod with some sort of shiny fabric folded up underneath it. On the back of it, toward where Jim was standing, was what looked like some sort of engine; smoke was coming out of it. Next to it was a box of tools and metal parts.

"What is this?" Lavi asked curiously.

"A solar surfer" Jim replied, surprised that the red-head showed any interest in it.

Lavi looked at him questionably. _Has he never seen a solar surfer before? _Jim thought.

"What does it do?" Lavi asked.

"Well, at the moment it doesn't do anything. It got struck by lightning a few days ago and the wires are completely fried," Jim said. "I've been trying to fix it, but so far no luck. Heck, maybe I'd be better off just building a new one".

Lavi walked around the metal device. He wasn't too good with machines, but he could tell it was in bad shape.

"You built this?" Lavi asked in amazement. He had never seen technology quite like this before.

Jim nodded. He built it alright. He built it when he was eight. Over the years he's been improving it, but it still had most of the parts from the original.

The device was amazingly complicated. _How could a kid his age have built something like this?_ Although, Lavi still had no idea what it did. _Solar Surfer. Well, solar means sun. So does that mean it's powered by the sun? If so, then this is definitely some kind of new technology. But the Order has the most up-to-date technology in the world. So how could technology this advanced exist here? …unless…. No, that's impossible… isn't it?_

While Lavi was lost in thought, Jim went back to fixing the solar surfer.

"So," Jim asked Lavi, breaking his train of thought, "where'd that other guy go?"

"You mean Yuu?"

"I thought he said his name was Kanda?"

"Well, it is. Kanda's his last name. Yuu Kanda. But don't call him by his first name unless you have a death wish," Lavi warned with a smirk. "Cuz ya see, Yuu-"

"Yet you seem to have no problem with it, do you?" Kanda said bitterly, his sword pointing at Lavi's face. This surprised Jim. _Why would this guy put up a blade against his own comrade? Talk about anger issues…_

"Hey, where've you been?" Lavi said, smiling nervously. Kanda lowered Mugen.

"Shut up," Kanda said in annoyance.

Kanda then walked away, disappearing again around the inn.

"Is he always like that?" Jim asked.

"Nope," Lavi replied, "usually he's worse."

"He reminds me of Captain Flint," B.E.N. started to ramble. "That guy had such a tempter! And… *blah blah blah blah blah blah*… you let me know when I'm rambling!"

"You're rambling." Jim started to loosen a bolt on the bottom of the solar surfer, opening a small compartment. He looked up at Lavi. "Can you hand me those wires over there?"

"The blue or the red ones?"

"Uhh..." Jim thought for a second, forgetting he had more than one type of wire. "both, I guess."

Not long after Jim had the wires was he already replacing the old ones with them. B.E.N. had left, blabbering on about an oil can stuck in a vent or something, so Lavi helped Jim instead.

"So, how old are you anyways?" Lavi asked.

"Eighteen." Jim answered as he routed the wires. "How about you guys?"

"Yuu and I are both nineteen, and Lenalee and Allen are sixteen."

"Wow…" Jim whispered, thinking about them fighting those akuma things at such a young age.

"We've been trained to fight akuma," Lavi said, knowing the look on Jim's face all too well. "We know what we're doing". Lavi grinned, closing his good eye.

A few minutes later they heard a mumbled crash of thunder. Another storm was coming.

"Damn…" Jim said, disappointed that he had to stop working. He sat the box of tools and the other equipment he was working with on top of the device. "Can you help me carry this?"

The two of them carried the solar surfer and supplies toward the back of the inn and set them next to the side of the building. After throwing a tarp over them, they fastened it down tight.

The thunder crashed. With the storm getting closer, it started to rain. The two boys ran around the building, both nearly slipping a few times in the quickly forming mud. At soon as they made it inside the doorway, it started to down-pour. They looked outside, grinning at the fact that they made it inside before they got completely soaked.

They turned around and looked toward the sitting room. Sarah Hawkins and Lenalee were sitting on one of the couches talking. Kanda was sitting on a chair in the corner, starring out the window.

As they walked toward the sitting room, the others looked up.

"You're soaked!" Sarah exclaimed as she saw the two boys walk in. She got up and went into the kitchen. When she came back, she was carrying two towels. Sarah handed one to each of the boys.

"Thanks, mom" "Thank you" they said at the same time.

She nodded and returned to her conversation with Lenalee. Jim and Lavi walked over and sat on floor, drying themselves off with their towels.

"This is an inn, right?" Lenalee asked. "How come there's no one else here?"

"Because it's storm season right now. No one ever travels this time of year; with the electric storms, it's too dangerous to travel," Mrs. Hawkins answered.

"What about Doctor Doppler and Amelia?"

"Oh, their house is under construction right now. So they've been staying here for the past few weeks with their children."

"They have children?" Lenalee asked, wondering why she hadn't seen them yet.

"Yes, quadruplets. Three girls and one boy," Sarah smiled. "They sleep a lot, so they usually stay in their room."

"They're not human, right?" Lavi asked.

Jim and Sarah thought this was an odd question.

"Of course not," Sarah chuckled. "Do they look human?"

The three exorcists all looked up at this point, listening intently.

"There are very few humans around here," Sarah continued.

"Where is here, exactly?" Lavi asked, his voice slightly shaken.

"On Montressor" Jim answered for the first time in this conversation.

_Wait a minute. Did he just say "on"? _

* * *

><p>As always, please review! It will make me happy and give me inspiration and motivation to write more! ^_^<p>

And let me know if you see any mistakes so I can fix them! Thanks! *hugs*


	7. Chapter 7

Sorry this is late! I've been having really bad writer's block recently...

anyways, enjoy!

* * *

><p>The three exorcists looked at Jim. <em>Why did he say "on"? What the hell is going ON?<em>

Jim saw them all stare at him with a look of disbelief and panic- well, except Kanda. He just looked a bit shocked.

He repeated again, "You're on the planet Montressor".

"What?"

_Sure, it was a little weird that there were intelligent creatures here that were not human. They were used to that, after all, with facing so many different levels of akuma and such. But on another PLANET? Was that even possible?_

"You're not from ANYWHERE around here, are you?" Jim already knew the answer to his own question. _Every planet in this galaxy has its own space port, and all of those space ports are associated with each other. So unless they were from another galaxy, where leaving their own planet was uncommon, then being here on Montressor would not have come to as much of a surprise to them. But it DID._

"So what planet ARE you from?" Doppler walked in, carrying what they assumed to be coffee. Although, considering the new information they just heard the doubted that's what it was.

"Uhh… Earth?" Lavi said, almost questioning his own knowledge.

"Really?" Doppler was surprised.

"So you've heard of it?" Jim asked the doctor. It wasn't a plant he knew of.

"Yes, but…" Doppler said in wonder, "Earth is in an entirely different galaxy! To even travel there from here, on a solar ship, at least, would take years! Because of that, very little is known about it- most of the spacers who go looking for it never come back. I, in fact, have one of the only maps in the galaxy that actually-"

"So, you mean to tell us, we're not on Earth? And not just that, but we're in a different galaxy?" Lavi tried to say this as calm as he possibly could.

"Precisely" Doppler continued, "So far, none of the planets in this galaxy have had any actual contact with any life forms on Earth, so it would make sense to assume that no life form on that planet has ever left the planet before."

"Heh… as far as I know," Lavi said nervously, recalling his bookman knowledge.

"But why did the Ark take us here?" Lenalee whispered so quietly that the others almost didn't hear her.

"As long as the Ark takes us back, it doesn't really make a difference, does it?" Kanda said bitterly.

Lavi rolled his eyes.

"So," Jim asked, "what are you going to do?"

Doppler left the room, talking to himself about a map or something.

"Well, until Allen wakes up," Lavi said solemnly, "there's nothing we CAN do. Like Lenalee had told you before, Allen is the only one who can control the Ark."

"The Ark?"

"Oh, that's the teleportation device or, portal, I guess you could say…"

The all sat there in silence, thinking everything over. So many questions ran through their minds. _Why did the Ark take us here? Is it gonna be able to take us back? How is it possible that they ended up on a different planet in a different galaxy? How did the akuma from the other night get here? Is Allen going to wake up soon? Will we be able to contact headquarters through Timcanpy? Timcanpy!_

"Where's Timcanpy?" Lavi suddenly realized that they hadn't seen Tim since they got here.

_Who's Timcanpy? _Jim and Sarah both wondered.

"He's probably with Allen," Lenalee replied.

"Alright, we should contact headquarters and let them know where we are."

Lavi went upstairs to the room where Allen was. _Tim's probably hiding in Allen's clothes…_

…

_Yeah~ NO. _

"Tim! Timcanpy!" Lavi whispered, not wanting to have to LOOK for the golem.

Luckily, a few moments later, something moved under Allen's jacket. The yellow golem crawled out from his hiding spot and yawned. He looked around and spotted Lavi; he ignored him and flew above Allen's face, poking it with his tail.

Then Tim poked one of the bruises on Allen's cheek. Allen flinched and let out a groan.

"Tim," He mumbled, "Stop poking me. I hurt badly enough as it is…"

Lavi chuckled.

"Look who finally decided to wake up~"

Allen opened his eyes, recognizing the voice.

"Lavi?"

"Good morning, sleepy head," Lavi smiled.

Allen tried sitting up, but he was unsuccessful. When Allen put his head back down on the pillow, Timcanpy landed in his hair, wrapping his tail around and leaving the end of it to sit on Allen's forehead.

"How long have I been asleep?"

"Um," Lavi scrunched up his face, thinking. "I'd say maybe a little over 26 hours… maybe. Or at least that's how long it's been since we got here. I mean, 'cause I don't know how much time past between when we went through the Ark, and when I woke up, so…"

"Are Lenalee and Kanda alright?" Allen asked anxiously, although he wasn't really worried about Kanda at all. He looked at Lavi's bandaged arm. "What about you? Are you alright?"

"Just peachy," Lavi laughed. Allen was always more concerned about others than he was about himself. That was one thing about him that would never change. "Lenalee's been worried sick about you. She'll be glad to know you're awake."

Allen slightly blushed, but hid it from Lavi by putting his hand up by his face and occupying it with Timcanpy's tail. Lavi slightly smirked. _Did Allen really think he could hide that from him? He's going to be the next bookman, so it's his job to observe… Besides, it was obvious that Allen cared about Lenalee._

"I'll be right back," Lavi said as he walked out of the room, leaving the door open.

Lavi ran halfway down the stairs before he could see the others in view. He leaned over the railing and yelled over to them.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

Allen could hear Lavi's footsteps running down stairs. When they stopped, he heard Lavi yell, "Hey! Allen's awake!"

_Did he really have to yell? Oh well. That's Lavi for 'ya._

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

"Hey! Allen's awake!" Lavi yelled to the others as he leaned over the railing, holding on to it with his good hand.

They all looked over to him, not comprehending what he said at first; they were too startled that he had yelled. Lavi ran the rest of the way down the stairs and walked over to them.

Lenalee's face lit up. As she started to stand up with her crutches, Lavi went over to her side, wrapping his arm around her waist and her arm around his shoulder. They started up the stairs, Jim and Sarah following behind them. Kanda was in no hurry, so he remained where he was until they made it up the stairs.

*.*.*.*.*.*.

Allen could hear more footsteps, this time going up the stairs. As they got closer, Allen tried sitting up a bit more. This time he successfully managed to sit up a bit, his upper body raised about seven inches more than it was before. He was now able to get a better look around the room too. There were two other beds, besides his, one of which had Kanda's uniform folded on it.

He looked over to the door. Lavi was the first to appear in the doorway. After him, or almost at the same time since he was supporting her, was Lenalee.

Lenalee looked over to him as he gave her a smile. Tears swelled up in her eyes as she ran over to him (or attempted to run, with a crutch under one arm and Lavi supporting the other).

Allen was startled when Lenalee suddenly gave him a hug. He hugged her back, trying to ignore the fact that she was pressing against a few of his bruises. He looked over her shoulder and saw that three other people had entered the room. Well, two had entered, anyways. The other was Kanda, who just leaned against the doorframe with his arms folded.

When Lenalee let go, Lavi introduced Allen to the two other people in the room.

"Allen," Lavi gestured toward Jim and Sarah, "Sarah and Jim Hawkins." Then he said it again the other way around. "Sarah and Jim, Allen Walker."

* * *

><p>Sorry it was kinda short. I couldnt think of what to write next, and it seemed a good place to end the chapter...<p>

so, as always, let me know if there are any mistakes so i can fix them

Thanks for reading! Please review! ^_^

*hugs*


	8. Chapter 8

Sorry for another late chapter! I've been having really bad writers block for the past month

yep...

* * *

><p>It was 11:14 pm.<p>

After changing Allen's blood-stained bandages and given him a clean pair of clothes, Mrs. Hawkins went to bed. Allen had soon fallen asleep again. Lenalee had been sitting on Lavi's bed for the past hour, but it wasn't long before she fell asleep too. Jim had disappeared to his room, taking a few of Doppler's maps with him. Kanda stayed downstairs in the sitting room, staring out the window at the storm.

Carrying Timcanpy, Lavi went into Lenalee's room, seeing as there was no one else in there, and shut the door behind him. _No sense in waking everyone else up._

He sat on the side of the bed and held Timcanpy out, allowing him to hover in front of him.

"Can you connect to headquarters, Tim?"

Timcanpy flew down and landed on the nightstand next to the bed. He opened his mouth and bared his teeth.

Nothing happened.

Timcanpy tried connecting again. Still nothing.

_Shit._

Timcanpy flew back over to Lavi, hovering around his head.

Lavi sat his chin in his good hand and supported his elbow on his knee. He closed his eye, thinking.

_Why can't Timcanpy connect? Is it maybe because of how far away we are? But that shouldn't make a difference… although, I guess it's possible, considering no one HAS tried to contact headquarters from this far away before… heh. Let's just hope Allen can connect the Ark._

*.*.*.*.*.

It was almost midnight. Lavi returned to his own room. Timcanpy followed and landed on top of Allen.

Lenalee was still sound asleep on Lavi's bed. _Oh well. It's not like it really makes a difference. _

Lavi covered her up with the blanket and went back to Lenalee's room. Kanda past him in the hall, giving him a glare that asked, _why are you going to Lenalee's room? _Lavi just chuckled and pointed with his thumb towards the room with the three beds, continuing to walk towards Lenalee's room.

Kanda walked over to the room and looked in. He rolled his eyes when he saw that Lenalee had commandeered Lavi's bed. He sat down on his own bed and fell asleep.

*.*.*.*.*.*.

In the morning, Doppler, Amelia, and their four kids left. The construction on their house was finished. Before departing, Doppler told the exorcists that if they need anything, or, well, anything pertaining to astronomy, to stop by any time.

The four exorcists and Jim were sitting in the room with the three beds, explaining to Allen the situation they were in.

"-and Timcanpy is unable to connect to Headquarters," Lavi finished the explanation. "So… you wanna try it now?"

"I guess… nows as good a time as any," Allen sighed and closed his eyes.

A tune played in his head. _The 14__th__'s song. _

Allen opened his eyes in alarm. Nothing was happening. The Ark wasn't opening. They were stuck there. Fear swept across the exorcists' faces.

"What's wrong?" Jim asked.

"It's not working… the Ark isn't opening," Allen whispered a reply. "But… why? It should still connect, no matter how far away we are…"

"Try opening it to somewhere closer, like, um, the other side of the room," Lavi suggested, pointing toward the doorway.

Allen closed his eyes again in concentration. Once again, nothing happened.

Lavi scrunched up his face in thought, resting his chin in his hand. He closed his eye.

"So, then, it has nothing to do with how far away we are…" He said, thinking out loud, his good eye still closed.

"…what are we going to do?" Lenalee asked solemnly. "Doctor Doppler said that if we were to travel there by- what was it again?

"Solar ship," Jim replied.

"Oh, right- If we were to travel there by solar ship, he said, it would take years!" Lenalee started to get really worried. _What if we can never get back? We can't be stuck here!_

"We need to find out why the Ark isn't working. That's really our only option," Allen said. _The 14__th__ is the only one who will know… he's our best bet. _Allen did not tell the others just yet that he was planning on talking to Neah.

"Well, I guess there really isn't much we can do right now…" Allen's stomach growled. He grinned sheepishly. _I'll talk to Neah later._

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

Allen had managed to get downstairs, with the help of Lavi.

Kanda and Lenalee had already eaten earlier with the company of Doppler, Amelia, their four kids, and Sarah, much to Kanda's displeasure. So now it was just Allen, Lavi, and Jim.

Breakfast was interesting. Mrs. Hawkins continued to bring out plates and plates of food, happy that the white-haired boy was enjoying her cooking. Jim stared at Allen in amazement while Lavi just laughed.

"What?" Allen glared at Lavi. "I haven't eaten in over 48 hours! I'm hungry!"

Lavi just continued to chuckle, taking a bite of toast.

"How can you eat that much?" Jim asked, still amazed.

Allen replied with his mouth full, all his words jumbled and incomprehensible. Then Allen swallowed his food and replied again to the question.

"It's 'cause I'm a parasite-type, so my body requires more energy than normal people".

Jim looked at him in confusion. _Parasite-type?_

"We haven't exactly gotten around to explaining everything yet," Lavi said to Allen. "I wasn't sure how much we could tell them without Central Agency getting pissed off." The last sentence he said as sort of a whisper as so only Allen heard it.

"Well, what DID you guys explain so far?"

"Umm," Lavi thought for a minute, recalling the past thirty-some hours. "Well, we sort of explained what Akuma are, and that we work for the Black Order, collect the substance that destroys Akuma, and destroy the Akuma. Umm… oh, and that we got here through the Ark, and that you can control the Ark and… hmm… what else?"

Lavi scrunched up his face in thought.

"Oh, and I warned him not to call Yuu by his first name!" Lavi grinned mischievously.

Allen rolled his eyes, taking another bite of food. He then went back to answering Jim's question, "Well, to fight Akuma, we use a substance called 'Innocence'. There are two types of Innocence: equipment-type and parasite-type. Equipment type is when it's formed into a weapon that the accommodator wields. Parasite-type is when the innocence is part of the accommodator's body, and the accommodator is able to transform it into a weapon."

Allen pondered on his explanation, wondering if it even made any sense.

"Oh, and an accommodator is just what we call someone who is compatible with Innocence. In general, we're known as Exorcists," he added as a side-note.

"And," Jim clarified what Allen had said before, "you're a 'parasite-type'?"

"Mmhmm," Allen nodded his head as he continued to eat. As he swallowed, he held out his left hand. Since the shirt that Mrs. Hawkins gave him was a little too big, and Allen hadn't bothered to roll up the sleeves, his hand was barely visibly under the baggy fabric. All Jim could see was a black shadow over the boy's hand. Then Allen pulled up his sleeve. Jim was not expecting what he saw. The white-haired boy's hand was pitch-black.

"Whoa…" Jim said. "And you can turn that into a weapon?"

Allen nodded his head again. "I would show you, but it's still numb," Allen said apologetically. Timcanpy came out from Allen's sleeve and poked at his arm, causing his fingers to twitch.

"What, you got nerve damage, or something?" Lavi grabbed Allen's arm and poked his hand in the same spot that Tim did. His fingers twitched again. Then he poked a different spot, this time, nothing happening. He poked the other spot again, and Allen's fingers twitched again.

"Will you stop that?" Allen yelled in annoyance, pulling his arm away from Lavi's grasp.

Lavi grinned. "Looks like Komui's definitely gonna have to have a look at that when we get back."

Allen grimaced as memories of his first day at the Order came back... and memories of just about every other time something happened to his arm.

Then something came out of Jim's pocket. A pink blur flew out and landed in front of Timcanpy, who was now sitting on the table.

"Whoa! What's that?" Lavi asked, surprised.

"A shape-shifter. His name's Morph," As Jim said this, Morph started to turn yellow. He grew wings and shaped out into a sphere. He looked exactly like Timcanpy. Then Tim opened his mouth and bared his teeth, letting out a slight growl. At this, Morph let out a slight yelp and quickly flew back in Jim's sleeve, transforming back to his blobby pink form as he did.

The three boys laughed. _Timcanpy wasn't THAT scary_.

Morph poked his head out of Jim's sleeve, shaking. Timcanpy grinned at him. He let out another yelp and ducked for cover again.

Allen picked up Timcanpy any looked at him with a disapproving smile.

"Don't be so mean, Tim." At this, Tim bit Allen's nose and flew behind the shelter of Lavi's bandaged arm.

"Ow!" He glared at Timcanpy, who was now sitting on Lavi's shoulder innocently.

Lavi laughed as Allen rubbed his nose. Tim hadn't punctured the skin, but it still hurt!

"Shut up."

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

After breakfast, Jim went to work on his solar surfer. Lavi helped him, wanting to learn more about this 'solar' technology. Lenalee decided to just sit outside and watch them. After all, it was a beautifully sunny day, and she needed something to raise her spirits. Kanda disappeared again to survey the area some more.

Allen went into the upstairs bathroom, since everyone else was either downstairs or outside, and locked the door behind him.

He stared in the mirror.

Neah grinned back at him.

* * *

><p>As always, please let me know if i made any mistakes with grammar, spelling, word use, etc...<p>

Please review! It's what gives me inspiration and motivation to continue writing! *hugs*


	9. Chapter 9

Sorry this chapter took forever! I had been lacking inspiration and motivation

Treasure Planet (c) Disney

DGM (c) Katsura Hoshino

* * *

><p>At first, the image grinning back at Allen through the mirror looked to be nothing more than a mere shadow.<p>

A shadow with an impish grin.

But then, the image started to become a definite form. The shadow twisted and turned, changing its appearance to look more human. The figure looked to be in his early twenties, had dark brown hair, grey skin, and bright golden eyes.

Neah Walker.

"Can I take over now?" The man grinned.

"No." Allen replied flatly.

Neah sighed, looking childishly disappointed. "Then what do you want?"

"You already know."

Neah smirked. _True, I do know what Allen wants to ask me, but did the boy really have to be so serious? _On the other side of the mirror, Neah hopped up on the counter across from the mirror and sink. He pushed aside a hairbrush and some hairpins so he had room to sit. After getting himself comfortable, Neah stared back at Allen.

"How should I know why the Ark isn't working?" Neah said nonchalantly.

"Because it's YOUR ark." Allen glared. He didn't like Neah's childish games, especially in a situation like this.

"Touché," Neah leaned back against the wall and folded his arms. "In all honesty, I'm not completely sure why it's not working. And as you've already proven, it has nothing to do with the distance of the location that you're trying to connect to." He shrugged. "It almost seems like something is maybe interfering with it..."

"Like what?" Allen asked, not as annoyed now that this conversation was actually getting somewhere.

"I dunno, a really bad storm? A frequency scrambler? Another portal, maybe? That Jim kid seemed to listen more carefully when you guys used the word 'portal' to describe the Ark."

"Huh," Allen hadn't realized it at first, but now that Neah pointed it out, it was kind of obvious. "So you think he maybe knows of another portal?"

"Seems like it. It's worth a shot to ask, anyways."

"Oh!" Allen said, remembering that his master's golem didn't work either. "But what about Timcanpy?"

"Well, golems work practically the same way the Ark does, don't they? So whatever is interfering with the Ark is probably interfering with Tim too."

"Alright," Allen headed out of the room, but before he closed the door behind him, he turned toward the mirror and gave an optimistic smile. "Thanks, Neah."

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

"Alright," Jim said as he tightened the last bolt, "That should do it!"

He walked around the solar surfer, double checking to make sure each piece was in place.

"Are you gonna test it now?" Lavi asked eagerly.

"Yep," Jim grinned as he lifted the solar surfer off of the work bench and set it on the ground, about one-third off the edge of the cliff.

"You sure this is even safe?" Lavi asked skeptically as he glanced over the side of the cliff. "'Cause I don't wanna have to explain to your mom that you plummeted down a cliff and died or something."

"If anything, it'll just blow up ~or something."

Lavi raised an eyebrow.

"I'm kidding!" Jim laughed. "The chances of that happening are one in a million."

He secured his left boot in the foot-hole and held his right heel slightly over the pedal on the back of the platform.

"Lenalee!" Lavi yelled over to the girl, who had been sitting on a bench against the side of the Inn, reading.

Lenalee looked up from her book. Seeing that they were getting ready to test the solar surfer, she set the book down and got up. Grabbing her crutches, she started towards the two boys.

"You might wanna stand back a bit," Jim looked over to Lavi. The red-head moved and stood next to Lenalee when she stopped a safe distance away from the solar surfer's engine.

"Alright…" Jim mumbled as he made sure his foot was secure. He looked towards the two exorcists, giving them a thumbs-up and a wide grin.

Then he jumped.

Lenalee gasped. Lavi ran over to the cliff and looked down.

Jim shot up.

"Hah!" Lavi laughed. Lenalee smiled in relief.

Jim thrust the pedal with his right heel. The bundle of cloth on the side of the board shifted up, glowing brightly, its scaly fabric shining as it absorbed the sunlight.

"Yeah!" Jim yelled enthusiastically as he flew over the others and shot higher into the sky. The wind blew through his hair as he made his way into the sky at a ninety degree angle. When he was high enough up, Jim lowered the sail, leaned back, and let gravity do its work. He plummeted down toward the ground, upside-down, and the board above his feet, spinning as it pushed against the air.

Thirteen feet from the ground, Jim flipped right-side-up.

Four feet.

Jim stomped on the pedal. The sail shot up and he was once again flying parallel to the ground. As he neared the exorcists, he slowed down. Lavi clapped when Jim came to a stop, jumping off the board and catching the side of it with his hand. Jim bowed humorously at his enthusiastic audience of two. Three. Allen was walking toward them, wearing a smile that both Lavi and Lenalee recognized all too well. Allen needed to talk to them about something important, although he didn't seem to want to say anything just yet.

"Allen~!" Lavi said cheerfully as he wrapped his good arm around the other boy's shoulders, practically leaning on him because of his height.

"Keep leaning on me and you'll have two broken arms," Allen whispered to Lavi with a fake smile.

Lavi made a pouty-face and whispered back, "You really need to work on getting over the whole 'beansprout'-complex".

"Not as much as Komui needs to get over his sister complex; or Kanda with his 'first-name'-complex."

Allen and Lavi both laughed, while Jim and Lenalee still had no idea what they were saying.

"So, what are you guys doing?" Allen asked as he looked at the metal board tucked under Jim's arm.

"Jim just fixed his solar surfer and was testing it out," Lenalee replied happily.

"Oh, okay," Allen smiled. He had seen some of Jim's stunts when he had walked outside, but he hadn't known at the time what he was doing. "So, then, is it fixed?"

"As far as I can tell, yes," Jim answered.

"Well that's good," said Allen.

"So what are you doing?" Lavi asked Allen.

"Hmm? Oh yeah, I need to talk to you guys about something, but where's Kanda?"

"Eh, he keeps wandering off. Want me to go look for him?"

"No," Kanda said in annoyance as he walked up to them.

"Yuu~!"

Kanda cringed. _Obviously the idiot had a death wish. _

"Well," Kanda said through gritted teeth, "what did you want to tell us, bean sprout?"

"It's ALLEN! A-L-L-E-N, Allen!"

"Che. Whatever."

"So…?" Lavi asked, trying to bring them back on topic.

Allen glanced over at Jim.

"Oh," Jim said realizing that he wanted him to leave.

"No offense, really!" Allen said, waving his hands apologetically. "It's just that it's kind of-"

Jim chuckled. "No problem. It's none of my business anyways". Jim gave them a sincere smile and walked away toward the back of the Inn, carrying his solar surfer and tools.

When they were sure Jim was out of hearing range, the other three exorcists looked towards Allen.

"So what's up?" Lavi asked.

Allen took a breath. "I talked to Neah."

Kanda snickered. "You do realize you're gonna be in even more trouble now, right?"

"Yeah, I know," Allen said in defense, "But I had no other choice! We can't get home without the Ark, and he knows more about the Ark than anyone."

Lenalee sighed. _Why did Central Agency have to hate Allen so much?_

"So what did you find out?" Lavi asked eagerly.

"Neah said that it's possible that something might be interfering with Tim and the Ark."

"Like what?" Lenalee asked.

"Well, he thinks that maybe there's some other portal blocking their connections." Allen replied. "He suggested we ask Jim about that."

"Well then what the hell are you waiting for?" Kanda said in irritation.

"I'm getting there!"

"Che." Kanda started to walk away back down the path where he had come from.

Allen glared at Kanda's back, annoyed.

"Well, I guess we can just fill him in later on what we find out." Lavi said, trying to lighten up the tension between the other two exorcists.

Allen sighed and nodded.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

Mrs. Hawkins continued with her daily routine as always. Wash the dishes, clean the tables, do the laundry… the typical chores that resulted from running the Benbow Inn.

The suds splashed around as she scrubbed a large plate with a warm, light blue hand-towel. The water in the sink was starting to get cold. She turned the faucet on to allow scolding water to mix in. When the warm water hit the cold, foam-covered pool, more soap suds began to form. As the amount of water became greater compared to the amount of soap that was originally put in, the texture of the new suds were more like bubbles than lather. Sarah lifted a bowl out of the water to scrub it, the swift movement of air causing a few bubbles to become airborne. One of the bubbles landed in her hair, popping when she took a step to the side to place the bowl on a towel to dry.

Her mind wandered to the events that had happened within the past few days.

The night when Jim had found the girl in the rain… the monster that attacked not so long after… It reminded her of the night when Billy Bones gave Jim the map; the night when the Benbow Inn was burned to the ground by pirates. She found it hard to believe that the pirate who led that attack was the same pirate who gave them the treasure to rebuild the inn. Silver. From what Jim had told her, he seemed to be a bit rough around the edges, but deep down, his heart was good.

Jim had really matured over those few months. He had told her about most of the trip, but she knew he was leaving key information out. When they had first planned the voyage, Sarah's biggest fear was that Jim wouldn't come back. Although she understood why Jim left out the life-threatening details, she couldn't help but imagine what dangerous events had happened.

A high-pitched shriek filled the room.

Sarah snapped out of her thoughts and whipped around, startled.

It was just the whistling of the teapot, the water inside boiling.

She laughed. _Jim came home safe and that's all that matters._

Another laugh hung in the air. Shocked, she froze, listening intently. The other, deeper, laugh had stopped. _Heh… now I'm just imagining things! Maybe I should stop drinking coffee in the morning._

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

"Hey Jim!" Lavi yelled, waving his good arm in the air as they walked towards the boy.

"What's up?" Jim asked as the three exorcists neared.

"We wanted to ask you something," Lenalee said.

"Hmm?"

"Well," Allen started, a little unsure how to phrase his question. "There isn't, by any chance, another portal around here, is there?"

Jim looked at them and scratched the back of his head. "…there WAS."

"Was?"

"Yeah, but it was kind of, um, destroyed on an exploding planet."

Lenalee looked at her two companions. "Well then that couldn't be what's wrong with the Ark, could it?"

Jim looked at them, confused.

"Hmm," Lavi closed his eye in thought. He opened his eye again and turned towards Jim. "You said it was destroyed on an exploding planet?"

"Yeah"

"Did you actually see it destroyed?"

"Well, no, but-"

"What do you think the chances are that it wasn't actually destroyed?"

"Huh?" Jim thought, a little surprised. "Well, I would think the chances of it not being destroyed are very thin. What makes you think it's still there?"

"Well, we think something is interfering with the connection of the Ark." Allen replied.

"And that something might be another portal's connections" Lavi added.

"So, it's possible, that if we're able to find that other portal, we can get the Ark to work again. And the Ark really is the only way we're going to be able to get home." Allen said.

"Well, the only way you're gonna get anywhere near where it might be is by solar ship."

"Where the hell are we gonna get a solar ship?" Lavi cried comically, frustrated.

Jim laughed and looked at the three exorcists. His eyes lit up as he grinned.

"I know just where to find one."

* * *

><p>As always, let me know if there are any mistakes ^_^ And please review! It will give me more motivation to write!<p>

Hugs and cookies for everyone!


	10. Chapter 10

FINALLY! Sorry for another late chapter!

DGM © Katsura Hoshino

Treasure Planet © Disney

* * *

><p>Jim rang the doorbell.<p>

It was about five in the afternoon. The sun was low on the horizon, but still lit up enough of the sky to be able to see clearly.

Lenalee, Allen, and Lavi stared in amazement at the enormous mansion. The front of the building was lined with tall, thin windows. On the right side of the mansion was a large observatory, also lined with tall windows, that had a telescope coming out of its domed roof.

The door slowly opened a crack. Two little eyes peeked out, only about a foot and a half from the ground.

Jim chuckled and knelt down so he was eye-level with the kid.

"Hey, kiddo," He smiled. "Is your mom and dad home?"

The child, who looked a lot like Doppler, blushed shyly and disappeared from view, leaving the door cracked open.

Jim stood up and glanced behind him, making sure the exorcists were still there, what with how quiet they were being.

"What is it, Terrance?" Doppler's voice spoke from inside the building.

Doppler opened the door and smiled happily when he saw the four teenagers.

"Come in, come in!" He motioned for them to step inside, closing the door after they entered.

"Whoa…" The three exorcists said in awe as they examined the giant hallway they were standing in. The walls were lined with portraits of many different sizes. One the ceiling, a large chandelier hung above them, with several smaller ones following the hallway on both sides. The floor, clean and polished, was a light marble stone. The fanciness was comparable to that of the Black Order's headquarters, but the atmosphere was much lighter.

"Well," Doppler said in content, "how can I be of assistance?"

Jim looked at him somewhat sheepishly. "Um, we're kind of in need of a ship."

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

Once again, the three exorcists stared in astonishment. They had followed Doppler into the observatory and were now standing in a vast, circular room with a high, domed ceiling. The room was considerably messy, although nothing compared to Komui's office. There were several piles of books and maps, one which was almost ten feet tall. On the far side of the room there was a fireplace and several chairs. The walls were lined with bookshelves and a spiral staircase that circled the entire room, leading up to the large telescope that was positioned through a window in the ceiling.

"Why in the galaxy would you need to sail back out to Treasure Planet? There's nothing left of it! There couldn't possibly be, with the inferno it created when it self-destructed!" Doppler said doubtfully.

"There's a possibility that the portal is still activated." Jim replied.

"What makes you believe that?"

"Well sir," Allen answered this time, "The portal that we normally use won't activate. We think that it may be because something else is interfering with it. I really do not understand how something like another portal could possibly disrupt it, but I am convinced that it's related in some way…"

All three of the exorcists looked doubtful themselves.

_For all we know, this could be a wild goose chase. We might just be wasting our time… but Neah wouldn't send us wandering the universe. After all, he wants to get back home as bad as we do; he can't destroy the Earl if he's on another planet. This is really the only option we have,_ Allen thought.

Doppler sighed, but then his ears perked up as he suddenly remembered something. He rushed to one of the piles of books in the room, climbing it about two feet up to reach the middle. Random objects slid off of the pile as he dug through. Finally, he pulled out several books from the mess. The books looked old and worn, with several crinkled papers sticking out the sides of them.

"What's all that?" Jim asked.

"This, my boy, is all the research I did on Treasure Planet and the legend of Captain Flint," He said as he sprawled the books and papers onto the floor, unfolding maps and notes.

Lavi knelt down next to the pile and picked up the book closest to him. It was titled "The History of Pirates in the Coral Galaxy". The book it had been sitting on top of was titled "The Mystery of Captain Nathaniel Flint". Next to it was a large, wrinkled, paper map. Lavi delicately picked it up with his good hand and examined it. It was like no map he had ever seen. Instead of charting land, with cities and countries labeled on it, it was a diagram of the galaxy, marked with thousands of different planets, stars, asteroid fields, and other such inscriptions.

Doppler unfolded a tan paper and held it in front of his face, trying to focus through his glasses.

"Ah! Here it is!" Doppler exclaimed.

The four teens looked at him questioningly.

"This here is an algorithm that I used to chart where each piece of the star of Pelusa was located after it exploded." Then he mumbled, "Of course, because most of it was sucked into the black hole, this isn't completely accurate, but…"

"But we could still use it to track where the remains of the portal may be." Lavi finished.

"Exactly!" Doppler said enthusiastically.

"How is that possible?" Lenalee asked.

"Basically you just use a bunch of math and geometry to predict where something is judging by the velocity, speed, size, mass… stuff like that. It's complicated, but it's possible. Bookman taught me the basics, but I wouldn't be able to figure out something as complex as this."

"Well, in order for this theory to work, we're going to need B.E.N. All the technical details of the explosion were automatically recorded into his hard drive. We need to get as many factors from the event as we possibly can in order to get the most accurate result." Doppler was now jotting down numbers onto a chalk board, drawing lines and making charts. "As soon as I finish this, we can chart our course and set sail!" Doppler now looked really excited.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

As soon as B.E.N. arrived, Doppler accessed his memory and wrote down every little detail of information he needed. The three exorcists and Jim moved to the sitting room so Doppler could work. Eventually Amelia walked in and sat down while her four children played with building blocks, boats, plushies, and other such toys, sprawled out on the floor.

Lynette, the blonde child, was fighting with her brother, Terrance, over who got to play with the small toy boat that resembled the RLS Legacy. The brunette, Emilee, was so distracted with showing Lenalee all her dolls that she didn't notice the fight behind her, which resulted in a stuffed animal hitting the back of her head and then crying. After being scolded by Amelia, Lynette and Terrance went off to play with different toys, being that their mother took away the one they were fighting over. Emilee calmed down in less than five minutes and eventually fell asleep on her mother's lap.

Meanwhile, the read-headed child, Avalon, was sitting in between Lavi and Allen, chattering to no end.

"Your hair's the same color as mine! Why's your hair white? Do you like purps? I like them. One time, I saw this bug, and it crawled on my hand, and it tickled! Do you like bugs? I like them. Have you ever seen a meteor before? I haven't. But daddy says that there will be a meteor shower next year. What about shooting stars? Have you ever seen a shooting star before? I like shooting stars. They're so pretty. What does 'ambidextrous' mean? I had a leaf shaped like a heart once, but then I lost it. My friend Juliana can cross her eyes. Can you cross your eyes? Why do you have an eye patch? Does your arm hurt? Why is that flying thing yellow? I like him. He looks like a bird. Are you Jimmy's friends? Jimmy's my friend too. Yesterday I drew a picture of a flower, and mommy hung it up on the wall."

The girl just kept chatting away, not even giving the exorcists time to answer any of her questions.

"Hey, kid," Lavi finally said, trying to stop her rambling. "Do you like riddles?"

"Yeah! I'm really good at them! I bet I can solve any riddle you throw at me!" Avalon said happily in her innocent child voice.

"Ok, well, here's one for you. What is so fragile that it breaks when you say its name?"

"Hmm…" The little girl sat down on the floor with her hand under her chin and started to think.

A few minutes passed. Just when Lavi had thought he stumped her, Avalon stood up and grinned at him.

"The answer is 'silence'," she said proudly.

"Wow, you are good for your age!"

"Another one!"

"Alright," Lavi grumbled, although he really was enjoying this challenge to find a riddle she couldn't solve.

Lavi went on to give her several more riddles to think about. It was a list of about 20 different riddles. He told her to write all her answers down and then to tell him the answers at once. While he was waiting for her to solve the puzzles, he noticed something. Allen had fallen asleep.

Lavi grinned mischievously. "Hey, Jim?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you by any chance have a pen? Or some sort of writing utensil with ink?"

"Lavi! You are NOT drawing on Allen again!" Lenalee yelled at him through a bit of amusement.

"Awwwwwww but look at him!" Lavi said with puppy eyes. Then he put on a big, unrealistic grin and picked up a purple marker he spotted on the floor next to one of the dolls. "I think he needs a mustache~!"

Lavi reached over to draw on Allen's face. The marker was less than an inch away when Allen grabbed Lavi's wrist. "Don't even think about it."

Lavi freed his hand and laughed. "I would never do such a thing!"

"Yeah right," Allen complained, still waking up. He sat up and blinked a few times, then looked around. Terrance, Emilee, and Lynette were gone, probably in bed by now. Everyone who was left in the room looked fairly drowsy. Amelia was sitting in a rocking chair reading a book. Lenalee had been chatting with Jim. Morph sat Avalon's shoulder as she thought about the riddles. Lavi sat on the other side of the couch looking intolerably bored.

"I've got it!"

They all looked up, startled, to see Doppler and B.E.N. enter the room. He was carrying a very large map and a bunch of pieces of paper in which his theory was written on.

Doppler pushed the toys to the side and unrolled the map out on to the floor.

"If my calculations are correct, the portal should be riiiiiigght…. HERE," he put a pin on the map and then realized that he accidentally pinned the map to the floor, so he pulled the pin out and circled the spot with the purple marker instead.

"Oh, well that's not far from here at all," Amelia stated. "It would take less than a week to get there, I should think."

"WOOHOO!" Lavi cheered enthusiastically.

"We should leave as soon as possible," Amelia looked at Jim, "Do you think Sarah would mind watching the children for a few days?"

"I'm sure she'd be fine with it," Jim smiled then muttered under his breath, "what she'd mind, though, is me going along."

"I'm sure we can convince her," Doppler reassured Jim.

Amelia looked around at Doppler, Jim, and then the three exorcists. "Well then, we'll leave tomorrow morning!"

* * *

><p>And, thus, the adventure begins!<p>

So, for this chapter, I had to do a bit of research~~ most of which failed ^_^" So, I had to resort to making up named for Amelia & Doppler's children:

*Terrance- boy

*Emilee- the brunette girl

*Lynette- the blonde girl

*Avalon- the red-head girl

I hope these names suit the characters.

I also ended up re-watching the beginning of Treasure Planet to accurately describe Doppler's mansion, although a lot of the chapter ended up being guess-work.

So, anyways, I hope you enjoyed! Once again, sorry for the late chapter!

As always, I didn't revise after uploading, so please let me know if there are any mistakes! Please review! ^_^

*hugs*


	11. Chapter 11

I really need to get back on a weekly updating schedule…

DGM © Katsura Hoshino

Treasure Planet © Disney

* * *

><p><em>This is stupid. There is no way we can possibly travel through space on a BOAT. <em>

"Yuu"

_And even if we did, why in the world are we looking for this supposedly destroyed portal anyways? IT'S DESTROYED. _

"Yuu~"

_And why are we following the advice of a Noah? We can't trust him! _

"Yuu…"

_The idiot Beansprout is going to get himself in even more trouble. Not that I actually care. Why the hell did I get stuck here with-_

"YUU!"

"WHAT?" Kanda exploded. He could only ignore Lavi for so long before he couldn't take it anymore.

"Touchy…" Lavi muttered under his breath, although not unheard. But he ignored Kanda's anger. He was good at that.

"What did you want?" Kanda was even more annoyed now that Lavi had gotten his attention but had nothing significant to say.

"Hmm? Oh, I forgot. But maybe I would remember if you weren't so grouchy," He smiled innocently.

"Che. Whatever." But then Kanda caught a glimpse of Lavi's mischievous grin… a split second before he tripped over a pile of rope. Kanda almost face-planted, but caught himself before he even touched the ground.

Lavi and Allen started laughing hysterically, but stopped right away when they hear the sound of Mugen slowly being drawn from its sheath. Lenalee rolled her eyes.

The four exorcists, Jim, Doppler, Amelia, and B.E.N. were on Montressor Space Port. They passed through crowds of people, although none of them human, as they walked to the ship they were to be traveling on. Since the last voyage, the ship had been repaired, and was now at the far end of the shipyard.

"Here we are!" Doppler announced to the exorcists enthusiastically, "The RLS Legacy!"

"Whoa…" Allen, Lavi, and Lenalee said in union. Kanda just raised an eyebrow.

"Normally, I would hire a crew, but due to," she cleared her throat, "previous experiences, we decided against it. I'm sure we can still run a ship with eight people."

Jim and Doppler nodded in agreement. The exorcists wondered what she meant my 'previous experiences'.

They headed up the ramp leaning against the side of the ship.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

_Wow. It still looks the same, _Jim thought nostalgically as he looked around. He sighed. A bittersweet feeling built up in his chest. This ship brought back good memories… and bad. For the thousandth time he wondered if he would ever see Silver again, the only father-like figure he really ever knew…

"Jim?" A voice behind him asked. It was Allen. "Are you ok?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah," Jim smiled and tapped his forehead with his index finger, "Just brings back memories, is all".

"It really does, doesn't it?" Doppler said cheerily. Then he slightly frowned when the event of the pirates taking over the ship came in to mind. He cleared his throat and ended with a slightly comical, "Never mind".

After about an hour of checking the ship, they set sail. It was a funny sight to see when the gravity lessened. The exorcists semi-freaked out when they started floating off the ground up until B.E.N. flipped the switch to turn the artificial gravity on.

Doppler stood next to Amelia, giving her directions as he flipped his map around, trying to figure out which was north on the map. Eventually B.E.N. took over the navigating.

The four exorcists stood on the starboard side of the ship, looking over the edge at the empty space around them.

"This is amazing," Lenalee said in wonder as Lavi let out a whistle.

"Just wait 'til we get further out into space," Jim grinned, "It really is a sight to see…"

"Yuu?" Lavi looked over at the Japanese exorcist. "You ok?"

"Shut up, I'm fine," Kanda replied edgily.

"Really? You look a bit tense," Lavi grinned mischievously. "Ya scared?"

The red-head ducked when Kanda attempted to punch him in the face. Instead, his fist landed a hit on the back of Allen's head.

"What the heck was that for?" Allen yelled, cradling the back of his head with his hands.

"Che, maybe you shouldn't have been in the way," Kanda said bitterly. "Then again, I guess I could have stopped my fist before it landed- but you're so short of a bean sprout I didn't even see you standing there behind Baka Usagi".

_Oh boy, _Lenalee face palmed, _here they go again._

"It's. Allen. A. L. L. E. N. ALLEN!"

"I really don't care. BEANSPROUT."

"Hey, guys…"

This time Kanda's fist did hit Lavi: right in the center of his face.

"Oww!" Lavi yelled, cupping his hands over his nose.

Lenalee decided she'd better end this before a bigger fight actually started.

"Hey!" She shouted, hovering slightly above them. Having her boots activated made her all the more intimidating. Everyone on the ship (including the people she wasn't even yelling at) froze at her sudden outburst. "STOP. FIGHTING. NOW."

The three exorcists looked at her uncomfortably. They were acting like a bunch of little kids and they knew it. But the fact that Lenalee had to yell and point it out made them feel all the more guilty.

The girl deactivated her innocence and walked away towards the cabins, disappearing from their view. For a few minutes later, everyone stood in silence. Lavi shifted uneasily, still holding his nose. Everyone else was waiting for one of the exorcists to break the awkward silence.

"Well," Allen said, wanting to ease the tension, "At least we know her legs have finally healed…"

In fact, all of the exorcists had healed significantly over the past few days. Kanda had no wounds whatsoever. Lavi's arm was now only wrapped in a thin layer of bandages and a small splint, no longer in a sling. Allen's bandages had been reduced to only two: one on his chest and one on his forehead. Lenalee could now walk without the crutches and activate her anti-akuma weapon. Overall they were in considerably better shape than when they had first arrived here.

For the most part of the next few hours, the three exorcists remained silent, keeping busy with little jobs that Amelia gave them. At one point, Jim and Allen both ended up in the kitchen peeling potatoes.

"So," Jim tried to start a conversation, "Does that happen often?"

"Which part, the fighting or Lenalee yelling?" Allen gave Jim a small smile.

"Both, I guess".

"Well, Kanda and I argue more than I'd like to admit. If no one stopped us, we could go on fighting for hours over something stupid," Allen trailed on. "Now that I think about it, we usually don't fight in front of Lenalee. She hates it when we fight. I guess maybe it's because, well–"

Then Allen's eye activated.

* * *

><p>And I shall leave you hanging (Muahahahahaha!) Sorry, I just really wanted to update this as soon as possible, and this seemed like a good stopping point~<p>

As always, please let me know if there are any mistakes that need fixed!

And please review! It gives me inspiration and motivation to continue! ^_^

*hugs*


	12. Chapter 12

Without a second thought, Allen stopped what he was doing and jolted up the kitchen stairs to the deck above, Jim following behind him.

Their eyes widened when they reached the top of the steps.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

"Where the hell did they all come from?" Kanda shouted angrily.

They we're surrounded, over a thousand level-one akuma, a distant gleam in their expressions, coming closer, preparing to attack.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

"Shit!" Lavi yelled, taking his hammer out of its holster.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

Hearing the commotion, Lenalee ran out of the cabin and up the stairs, nearly knocking Allen over when she accidentally ran into him.

*.*.*.*.*.*.

Despite already being told that the only thing that can destroy Akuma is Innocence, Amelia pulled out her gun. "Dilbert! Secure the sails! If we lose them, we'll be stranded! Ben, ready the ship's cannons!"

"Aye, captain!" They both replied, rushing frantically to their tasks.

"Jim! Hold the wheel until Ben gets back!"

"Ay- WHAT? I can't sail a ship! Where are you going?" He said in a panicked voice.

"The ships cannons might not be able to destroy them, but they might hold them off!"

*.*.*.*.*.*.

A glow grew around Allen, forming the white cloak of innocence, a silver mask, his left arm taking the shape of a claw. With his right hand, he grabbed his other wrist. A bright light erupted from his arm as it transformed into a broad, silver sword.

He swung at an akuma.

*.*.*.*.*.*.

Lenalee activated her innocence. The blood-red rings around her ankles began to melt, covering her feet, spreading up her legs, forming boots with a butterfly-shape on her heels.

*.*.*.*.*.*.

Doppler climbed the shrouds, up to the sails, standing on the wooden yard, securing them with another piece of rope. When he looked up, his face was one full of drastic terror. An akuma was floating right in front of him, its gun barrels aimed.

_Chu-chink. _Its guns were loaded. He squinted his eyes shut.

Then he heard an explosion. Realizing that it hadn't fired at him, the doctor opened his eyes. Lavi was standing in front of him with his hammer, which was now fifty times larger than before. The akuma was gone.

"Might not wanna stay up here too long, Doc," Lavi grinned.

"I completely agree," He rushed down as fast as he could, not wanting another akuma that close to him.

Lavi was about to jump off the yard to another akuma when he heard Amelia yell.

"The artificial gravity is only effective on the ship, so whatever you do, stay on it!"

_Good thing she mentioned that._

Lenalee was the only one who this did not apply to. The energy that her boots let off to allow flight gave her the advantage of having a force to move her through zero gravity the same way the ship does.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen.

_Hell's insects._

Twenty-two.

Kanda sliced though the akuma as they approached, not stopping for a second.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

Lenalee jumped into the air above the exploding akuma. She was now fighting several yards above the ship, gracefully soaring through the debris of destroyed demons. Her boots landed a destructive kick on their metal armor, breaking it to pieces.

Slightly less than half of the akuma had been destroyed so far.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

Amelia fired. A blazing orb of electricity shot from the cannon. It hit. Although it hadn't done any fatal damage to the opponent, the akuma was still sent flying backwards at least thirty meters.

"Blasted!" Amelia yelled when the cannon over-heated. She jumped off the platform and ran to a large wooden box underneath the stairs to the quarterdeck. Once she opened the box, she reached in and pulled out a large-barreled blaster gun.

Right when she turned around, an akuma floated down in front of her. But before it had time to reload its guns, she propped the weapon up on her shoulder and fired, forcing the akuma overboard.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

The akuma screeched when it was sliced in half down the middle.

Allen was now standing on the bowsprit looking around. His cursed eye was detecting a level-three akuma. _But where is it? _This worried him.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

"Whoa!" Jim ducked behind the wheel when an akuma sent a yard swinging over him. He turned the wheel hastily to put the sail back into place, actually knocking the same akuma overboard in the process.

Suddenly Jim had a gut feeling. He had a gut feeling that something was wrong, terribly wrong.

He turned around, his eyes widening in dreadful terror.

"_Cabin boy~"._

* * *

><p>So, sorry the chapter was a bit short, but at least I'm actually getting close to being back on my weekly updating schedule! Yays!<p>

*For this chapter, I added a bit of sailing-vocabulary, so here are some definitions ^_^

**Shrouds**- the net (checker-like) ropes that connect between the side of the ship and the sails.

**Yard**- the horizontal pole that holds the sail.

**Quarterdeck**- the central control point of the ship (where the wheel is)

**Bowsprit**- the pole on the front of the ship that allows the mast to extend further out.

I don't really know how to write fighting scenes, so I hope you don't mind the way that I did write it. Breaking it up into a bunch of little scenes and jumping from person to person was the only way I was able to manage ^_^"

As always, please review! It gives me inspiration and motivation to continue! ^_^


	13. Chapter 13

Happy New Year everybody! And to start off the new year, here's the next chapter! ^_^

* * *

><p>Before Jim had a chance to run, Scroop had him pinned to the mast, claw around his neck, several feet above the ground. Jim held on to the red claw with both hands, pulling himself up, struggling for air. A familiar scene.<p>

"Revenge is a funny thing," The spider-like akuma hissed. "It can make you… stronger." His grip tightened.

_I'm going to die, aren't I? Right here, right now, I'm going to–_

"Hey!" said an unfamiliar voice.

Scroop's grip loosened as he suddenly produced an angry, annoyed expression.

"I told you, you are not to kill the boy until I say so, got it? Follow orders or else you never _will_ be getting your revenge." The female voice spoke forcefully, the evil tone not masked by the sweetness of her voice. _Follow orders else I'll eliminate you._

"My apologies…" Scroop replied, reluctantly dropping the boy, "Mistress Road."

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

_Shit! _Allen spotted the level-three. It had Jim. Slicing through another akuma, Allen ran along the starboard side of the ship.

"Hey!" A familiar voice yelled to the level-three akuma.

_Oh no. _Allen tensed as he realized that the akuma weren't their only opponents. _This is bad, really bad!_

Then he heard Road yelling at the akuma to let Jim go. _Why? What is she up to? And how did she even get here?_

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

Jim gasped in surprise when the Scroop-akuma dropped him, or rather, threw him to the side.

As he sat up, rubbing his neck, Jim got a better look at the girl, who he now noticed was floating in midair. She had short, dark purple hair, and wore a white dress shirt, a poofy skirt, and striped tights. And her skin was _grey_.

The next thing he noticed was Allen sneaking up behind her, ready to attack.

The girl didn't even see the white-haired boy, she just stared straight ahead, an inhuman grin spreading across her face.

Allen swung his sword, but the girl disappeared.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

_Dammit! She knew I was there._

"All~en," A sing-song voice said behind him.

As soon as Allen swung around to face her, Road sent him flying, landing on the stairs to the quarterdeck, a few feet away from Jim.

Allen clenched his teeth for a second but then looked up at the girl, who was floating a few yards away.

Jim looked around, noticing that all the akuma had stopped attacking, but surrounded the ship in proof that there was no escape. Their guns were aimed at the other three exorcists, who stood their ground, ready to attack. Amelia, Doppler, and B.E.N. were standing behind them, weapons in hand.

Allen stood up, wearing a hateful expression, but showed no sign of fear.

"Road."

"Aww, you don't look happy to see me, Allen," She made a pouty face, "You see, I was sooooo happy when the Earl sent me on this mission, because I missed you, Allen!"

"How did you get here?" Allen asked, not breaking eye-contact.

"I thought it was obvious~" Road replied sweetly.

"She used that door of hers," This time it was Lavi who spoke, remembering Road's powers well.

"Right you are, Bookman Junior!" She hummed, holding up her index finger. "You see, unlike the Ark, my portals are not physically of this world, so they cannot be tampered with." Road smiled innocently. "You're probably wondering why the Millennium Earl sent me here, aren't you?" She smirked. "Well, you see, we're testing out a new type of akuma." She gestured to the level-three.

Allen hadn't noticed it before, but now that he got a better look, his eyes widened.

"That's right," She smiled smugly. Then she sighed dramatically. "Well, fortunately for you, I was told not to kill anyone today." She walked backwards in the air, a large, fancy door appearing behind her. "It's been fun, Allen Walker. We'll play again soon."

Just as Road was about to go through the door, she turned around, wearing a malevolent smile. "It was nice meeting you… James Hawkins."

At that, Road, the akuma, and the door vanished.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

"Allen? Allen, what did you see? What did she mean by 'a new type of akuma'?"

After Road had unexpectedly called off the attack and retreated, they all moved into the hull. Allen sat on a crate, head in his hands. The other three exorcists had gathered around him, while the others sat a few yards away, full of questions. Allen slowly lifted his head, but did not look at any of his comrades. He stared at the floor across the room, not focusing on anything in particular, his eyes full of thought.

"This is bad, this is really bad," Allen finally replied, still staring at the ground.

"You gonna tell us or not, Beansprout?" Kanda asked impatiently.

"For one thing, the soul was not human, but at this point, that's the least of my concern. The akuma... it... it's soul wasn't... it was _holding on _to the akuma shell. The soul wasn't attached, it wasn't trapped, but instead controlling the akuma at its own will..."

"What?" The other exorcists looked at him in disbelief.

"How is that possible?" Lenalee asked, her voice trembling.

"I don't know, but it's a huge advantage on their part. They'll have thousands more souls to turn into akuma," Allen said shaking his head. "They–"

"But it might not work."

"Huh?" Everyone looked at Lavi.

"What are you talking about Baka Usagi?"

"Road had said that they were _testing_ the new akuma. Which means, they don't know what the long term result will be! This new method might not even work. In case you didn't notice, that akuma wasn't planning on following her orders." He looked over at Jim. "What did he say to you?"

"Uh," Jim said, uneasy now that all their attention was on him, "he said that revenge is a funny thing, it can make you stronger."

"So that's it? That's their leverage against these new akuma?" Lenalee questioned.

"Che. So the Earl offers them the power to get revenge in exchange for becoming part of his army," Kanda growled.

"Exactly," Lavi continued, "but because these akuma are there of their own will, they still have full control. If they wanted to, they could turn on the Earl..."

"...and then he would destroy them." Allen finished.

"Well if it's just going to bring them back to where they started, then why does it make a difference?" Kanda asked, irritated.

"Because, silly Yuu, that is only one theory. On the other hand, since these akuma will still have whatever intelligence and willpower they had before, they may already know the result of disobeying the Earl. So, they will wait for their chance. But then maybe that would have been the Earl's plan all along. Create new akuma who are dead set on revenge, then allow the akuma to get their revenge, which will result in tragedy, creating the ultimate akuma army."

They sat in silence for the next few minutes. Finally, Allen stood up.

"They'll be back." He looked at Jim and the others. "Sorry we got you guys into this mess."

Jim gave him a small reassuring smile, "I have a feeling we would've been involved even if you guys weren't here, so don't apologize."

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

_He's right, you know. That is the Earl's plan._

_Go away, _Allen thought. He had been sitting in the crow's-nest for the past hour, looking at the stars and planets, thinking.

_Sorry, can't_, Neah replied.

_So what should we do?_

_Ah, now that question could be referring to so many different things. What should you do to get home, what should you do when Road returns, what should you do if the new akuma are a success, what should you do to get rid of me, what should you do to stop the Earl, so many questions that can't be answered..._

_Why do you think Jim thought that they would've been involved even if we hadn't gotten stuck here?_

_Well, that question is easy to answer. Because he would have. That akuma knew him. He's probably the source of his revenge. Even if you had not met Jim, the akuma would have still been created._

Allen sighed.

_So, _Neah continued, _that means that_ _it's a good thing that you're here. I'm sure that if you weren't, he, and everyone else on that planet, would be dead by now, with no one to stop the akuma. But, you are also right. Just being here puts them in even more danger, what with attracting the Earl's attention and all._

_Thanks, Neah, that makes me feel so much better_, Allen thought sarcastically.

_Glad I could help._

Timcanpy moved from his spot in Allen's hair, flew around a bit to stretch his wings, and then landed once again in the white hair. Allen watched as a shooting start flew by, millions of light-years away.

_It's amazing, to know that the world really is bigger than just the one we live on, to think, there are more worlds beyond our own, so much that we don't know, or don't understand. Heh, Komui and the others would've loved to see this..._

_Hmh. I'm sure they'll read the detailed report that you're all gonna have to fill out when you get back, _Neah laughed. Allen just cringed at the thought, but then went back to looking thoughtfully at the abyss.

_What if we can't get back?_

_What if, what if, what if, _Neah mocked. _You ask too many questions._

_But I'm serious! You even said yourself that you aren't sure if this other supposed portal is really the reason the Ark won't work. Maybe Doctor Doppler was right, and that other portal really was destroyed. Maybe we're just wasting our time, and putting them in unnecessary danger while we're at it!_

_You worry too much. Although not as much as that vampire, or the creepy lady._

_Miranda isn't creepy._

_Well I think she is. Anyways, if you worried as much as them, then we'd have a problem, 'cause then I'd be worried about your worrying, and then you would worry even more because I'm worried, and then everyone else would notice and then they would worry, and then all we'd have is a big glob of anxiety disorders!_

_...did you have a point?_

_What happened to being so optimistic? _Neah asked accusingly. _You skeptic! _

_I'm not a skeptic._

_You're acting like one._

_Only in my head, where you're the only one who's listening._

_Oh thanks, I feel so special, being the only one who gets to hear your downing thoughts. _

_Then don't listen._

_Tried that. Didn't work too well considering I have no ears to plug._

Allen chuckled.

_Alright, I'll try to be a little more optimistic._

_Thank you! _Neah said in exasperation. _Now start by getting off your lazy ass and finding something to do! I'm bored as shit, and you staring into space isn't helping!_

*.*.*.*.*.*.

"Kanda?"

The swordsman was sitting on the floor in the hull, meditating. When he didn't reply, Lenalee sat next to him and tried meditating too.

"What?" Kanda replied, his eyes still closed.

Lenalee looked at the ground and sat with her hands on her knees.

"I'm worried about Allen."

"Why?"

"Well, he... oh I don't know."

"If you don't know, then why are you worried?"

"I don't know..."

"..."

"Kanda?"

"..."

"Do you think we'll be able to get home?"

Kanda then stood up and looked at her.

"I think you worry too much."

Lenalee gave a small smile. That was all she needed to hear.

*.*.*.*.*.*.

_It's curious. How is any of this possible?_

_The akuma..._

_If Scroop became an akuma, what's to say that the other pirates won't... or hadn't already? And the generations of pirates before them? _

Amelia folded a map and placed it in a compartment of her desk.

_It's so frustrating, not being able to destroy them. What will we do if we get separated? We all need each other. We must stick together. _

*.*.*.*.*.*.

"You know what would be REALY bad?" B.E.N. said thoughtfully, yet amusingly.

"Do tell," Doppler put down his spyglass and jotted some notes on a piece of paper.

"If Captain Flint became an akuma! That guy had such a temper... and then there was that other guy, Daisy Jones– wait, that's not it. What was his name..?"

"Please don't jinx us."

*.*.*.*.*.*.

_The Earl's army is getting stronger. _

_Bookman had told me that it was as if the Earl was telling us that he could destroy us any time._

_Is the Earl purposely not destroying the Order? Because if he was going to destroy it, now would be the perfect time... the four of us stuck here, half of the rest of the exorcists at the Order out of commission, or at least they were a few days before we left... And it's obvious that he didn't destroy it within the last few days, because if he did, Road would have said something. That's the game she plays._

_But these new akuma... _

_What is really going on?_

*.*.*.*.*.*.

Jim leaned on the edge of the ship, elbow on the wooden ledge, chin in his hand.

_Akuma..._

_Scroop is now an akuma._

_Scroop is an akuma who is out to get revenge._

_Revenge on me._

_Because it was me or him. It had to be one of us. It ended up being him._

_But it would have been me, long before that, if Silver hadn't stopped him._

_Silver._

Jim was pulled out of his thoughts when Morph rubbed up against his cheek, humming in reassurance.

"Hey, Morph." Jim smiled, petting the shape-shifter's head. "You miss him too, huh?"

"Miss him too! Miss him too!" Morph repeated.

Jim continued to look out into space, when someone walked up next to him. It was Allen.

They stood there in silence, both looking out into space.

"Hey Jim?"

"Hmm?"

"I was wondering... why did you agree to help us? I mean, it's not that I'm not glad you're helping us, but... you agreed right away, without question."

"You ever have a gut feeling, like you know there's something you have to do, but you don't know what?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean."

"..."

"Jim?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

* * *

><p>Hurray for plot development!<p>

sorry this was really late, but I tried to make it a bit longer than the other chapters to make up for it ^.^"

as always, please let me know if there are any mistakes so I can fix them~

and please review! It gives me inspiration and motivation to continue!

*hugs*


	14. Chapter 14

Dark blue space, thousands of galaxies, millions of stars. Emptiness, vastness, a silent abyss.

The solar-ship's sails glowed as the bright light of a star nearby was absorbed. The wooden ship creaking with the ever-so-slight changes of air pressure. A shooting star passes by.

It was a quiet morning.

"Well this is exceedingly inconvenient."

Amelia stood in front of a metal panel attached to the bottom of the fore-mast, a bronze gauge embedded in the side. The red needle in the gauge was limp, and the covering glass was cracked. The small tank underneath the panel was torn open, burnt on the edges, bullet holes covering the side.

"What is it?" Lavi stood next to her, looking at the machinery. Allen and Lenalee stood behind them, just as confused.

"What...?" Doppler walked over to her, looking down at the panel, a [goofy] look of terror spreading across his face. "AH!"

"It must have gotten damaged in the attack yesterday."

"WE'RE GONNA DIE! WE'RE GONNA DIE! WE'RE GONNA DIEEE!" Doppler started running in circles.

"We're not going to die, we just have to repair it is all."

"What is it?" Lavi asked again.

"It's our oxygen level control."

...

"WHAT?"

"Oh, stop making such a fuss. Did you know, when you are panicked, you breathe faster, therefore using more oxygen? For all we know, we could be running out of oxygen very fast, but there's no way to be sure with the pressure valve damaged as well."

Lavi's hands flew up, covering his mouth and nose. The exorcists were now even more freaked out than they had been a minute ago, practically holding their breath.

Jim walked up from behind them.

"Relax, she's just messing with you," Jim raised an eyebrow as the red-headed exorcist slowly lowered his hands, grinning sheepishly.

Jim walked over and knelt in front of the device to examine it.

"It is gonna need to be repaired soon, though. I can fix the gauge, but the capsule is completely trashed, so we'll need a new one. How far is the nearest port?"

Doppler eyed his map intensely then frowned.

"Six thousand, four hundred and eighty-seven point two miles east, it would take at least three days to get there, and that's practically just going back the way we came."

"Way we came! Way we came!" Morph chirped in.

"Hmm," Jim walked over to the side of the ship, thinking. "Uh, hey doc? What planet is that?" He pointed to a faint sphere in the distance.

"Well, I do believe that is the planet Amethysta. I don't know much about the planet, but I do know that there isn't much civilization inhabiting it, so there's a great chance that we wouldn't be able to find a town, let alone get the parts we need."

"But there's a chance, right? It's the closest planet, and we could probably get there in less than a day. Either that or we take a chance of running out of oxygen while looking for a port."

"Um, I vote for Jim's plan," Lavi scratched the back of his head, "But that's just my personal opinion."

"I don't see why not," Amelia agreed. "Better safe than sorry, I suppose."

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

The planet had no docks or ports, so they had to find a clear, flat area to land the ship. This task was easier said than done. The first time they tried to land, the ground literally shifted underneath them. They were surprised to find that it was actually a rock-like animal they had almost landed on. The second time they tried to land, and unfortunately _did_ land, they had attempted to carefully lower the ship into a small clearing, but got stuck in a vine-filled treelike plant instead.

"Why does this seem to keep happening?" Amelia mumbled to herself.

They decided to split up, not sure where they would find a town or village of some sort. Amelia, Lenalee, and Lavi had gone west, following a stream, while Jim, B.E.N., and Allen went north, following an overgrown path through the mazelike vegetation. Doppler and Kanda stayed with the ship.

*.*.*.*.*.*.

"They aren't back yet?" Lenalee stared in the direction the others had went. "It's getting late... or at least I think it is."

Amelia's group had returned to the ship, unable to find anything. Jim's group had yet to return.

"Ya think we should look for them?" Lavi suggested.

"No. It's getting too dark. If they aren't back by sunrise, we'll search for them then," Amelia glanced in the direction Lenalee was looking, then boarded the ship. "There's no sense in letting anyone else get lost too."

"I hope they're alright..." Lenalee said quietly.

"Che. Stupid Beansprout," Kanda muttered, also getting on the ship, "Always getting lost."

*.*.*.*.*.*.

"Jim, I think we're lost."

"Yeah, I think we are."

The two boys sat on a nearby stump, exhausted.

"Yep, we're utterly lost, completely stranded, stuck in the middle of a never-ending maze," Ben confirmed.

They sighed in defeat.

"Now what?"

"Don't look at me, I'm just as clueless about this planet as you are."

"It's starting to get really dark," Allen frowned.

"I can't remember, it was either this planet or a similar one in the Coral Galaxy," Ben stated thoughtfully, "But anyways, on one of them, at night there are these creatures that come out. I think they eat kidneys or spleens or something like that, but like I said, I'm not sure which planet it was..."

"...what?" They both stared at the robot.

"Don't worry, they only come out at night!"

"It is night!"

"Oh," Ben stood still in realization, "Uh oh."

"Well, you're not completely sure that they were on _this_ planet, right?" Allen laughed nervously.

"So we might just be worrying about nothing," Jim looked at the others, the same uneasy grin on his face.

Suddenly, they heard a rustling noise coming from the dense undergrowth.

"What was that?"

"I dunno..." Both of them stood tensely looking in the direction of the noise.

It was quiet.

"GRAWR!"

Jim fell backwards when something hit him in the stomach.

"MORPH!" They yelled, mixed feelings of anger, annoyance, surprise, and relief.

The pink blob started laughing hysterically at their reactions.

"You little squid!"

Morph continued to laugh, flying in circles so they couldn't catch him.

They decided to move on, figuring that staying there wasn't the best of ideas. But getting lost in the daytime was one thing. Trying to find your way back in the dark was a completely different story. And then not even being able to see the sky because of the thick trees above made it even worse. The sun had at least made its way through the canopy earlier, but now it was just claustrophobic.

"We should make sure we keep walking straight, that way we don't just end up going in circles," Jim said as he started making marks in the dirt with his foot. "This way if we do end up going in circles, we'll know it," He explained. "Ben, do you think– Ben?"

Allen and Jim looked around, realizing that the robot was nowhere in sight.

"Great." Jim practically face-palmed.

"He was right behind me a minute ago! How the heck did he manage to get separated?" Allen looked back in the direction they had come, not sure if trying to find him would get them even more lost or not.

"I dunno," Jim sighed, "but I'm sure he'll show up. Eventually."

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

_How did they manage to get lost when both that annoying robot AND the General's golem are with them? Idiots._

"Do you think they might have found a town?" Lenalee asked hopefully.

Lavi, Amelia, Doppler, and Lenalee were sitting at one of the tables just outside the small kitchen where a cyborg once worked. As usual, Kanda sat at a different table, as far from them as possible, leaning against the wall.

"Honestly," Amelia sighed, "no."

"Besides, if they did, Allen would have sent Timcanpy back here to tell us," Lavi mumbled, his head buried in his arms face-down on the table.

"I guess you're right... wait, but why wouldn't he just send Tim back here if they're lost?"

"That jungle is so thick, the golem might not be able to break through the canopy," Amelia answered the girl.

"Oh..." Lenalee was getting more anxious by the minute. _What if something happened? Maybe I'm just worrying too much... I know it's dark, but maybe I could find them? If I used my innocence, I could fly above the trees and look for them. But, if what Amelia had said about the canopy is true, would I still be able to spot them? I could end up overlooking them and not even realize it! I can't just sit here! But what if I ended up getting lost too? That certainly wouldn't help, it would just make things more frustrating for everyone else. GAHHH! I can't take it anymore!_

Lenalee got up from her seat, walking towards the stairs.

Realizing the girl was no longer sitting next to him, Lavi lifted his head and looked in her direction.

"Lenalee?" But she was already on deck. The red-head glanced over to the samurai, meeting his eyes for a split second before Kanda sprinted up the stairs.

Less than thirty seconds later, Kanda returned. The other three looked at him.

"Che. She's gone."

*.*.*.*.*.*.

It had been three hours since they entered the jungle. They still hadn't found Ben, civilization, or even the ship for that matter. Most of the time they walked in silence, Allen's stomach growling occasionally.

_This is ridiculous! We should have found SOMETHING by now_! Jim scratched the back of his head, but suddenly turned to look behind him.

"Did you hear that?"

"Yeah..." Allen scanned the direction from which they had come, watching for akuma. There wasn't any. _Something is there, but what? I can't see a thing!_

Then they heard it again, behind them, this time in the direction they had been heading. The sound of rustling plants, something moving, something alive.

Again.

And again.

Each time in the direction opposite to where they were looking.

Four more times before they stood back to back, examining the entire area around them.

Then they saw it, in the corner of their eyes, Allen's left and Jim's right.

"The t-tree, it... it–"

"–it moved!"

Suddenly their entire surroundings started to change. The trees morphed, plants disappeared, new plants grew, the ground shifted beneath them, causing the marks Jim had made to disappear.

"No way..."

* * *

><p>Sorry for being late again!<p>

There was actually a lot more that I had wanted to put in this chapter, but I decided to cut it off here and just put the rest in the next chapter, that way I could update sooner

as always, let me know if there are any mistakes!

and please review! It gives me inspiration and motivation to continue! ^_^


	15. Chapter 15

DGM (c) Katsura Hoshino

Treasure Planet (c) Disney

* * *

><p>"No way..."<p>

Everything around them had changed, warped. It no longer looked like the jungle they had been lost in only a minute prior. The colors were different, the plants were different, even the ground was different.

Then everything stopped.

"..." Allen and Jim remained still, eyes wide in shock.

"What just–" Allen jerked his head around at the sound of a loud crack.

"Shit," Jim grabbed Allen's arm, pulling him in the direction opposite the noise, "RUN!"

Seeing the ground split in two just a few yards away confirmed the reason for the other's panic.

They ran.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

_Where do I even start? _

Lenalee looked at the jungle below, scanning for any sign of Jim and Allen.

_It really IS too dark..._

Even though her Dark Boots glowed, they were not enough to illuminate the shadows.

"Aaallen!" she yelled, hands cupped around her mouth to project the sound. "Jiiim!"

No response. Not that she had really expected one...

The girl flew down towards the treetops, stopping just a few feet above.

"I wonder..." She had an idea.

It was simple, really: break through the canopy.

Lenalee landed, trying to kick through the leaves and branches. Nothing moved, nothing broke.

She sighed in annoyance and flew back into the sky. When she was at a good height, the exorcist stopped, looking down at the spot she had tried to break.

_Level two, release._

She shot down towards the canopy, collecting speed and momentum as she descended.

_I should be able to break right through it..._

Fifty feet.

Thirty feet.

Ten feet.

Suddenly, a vine shot out of the foliage, wrapping around her legs, stopping her before impact.

"AHH!"

It pulled her into the jungle.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

"AHH! What the heck is going on?" Allen yelled over to Jim. They were both still running frantically, the splitting earth following closely behind.

"I have no idea!" He yelled in reply. "I don't know about you, but I can't keep this up much longer!"

_Shit, he's right, there's no way we can outrun this!_

Allen activated Crown Clown.

"Hang on!" Allen grabbed Jim's hand and sent Clown Belt into the air above them. The white ribbon of Innocence wrapped itself around a branch, holding on tightly. Just then, the ground opened beneath them.

"Phew..." Allen held on to Jim with his right hand. His left hand held on to Clown Belt, the only thing keeping them from falling into the trench.

Jim glanced at the abyss for a moment and then closed his eyes, laughing nervously. "Long way down, huh?"

He looked up at the exorcist.

"Any ideas as to how we're getting out of _this_ mess?" He looked around. The hole had grown wider as it progressed through the jungle. The closest bit of solid ground was now nearly 70 yards away. There was no way they'd be able to make that jump.

"Uh, sorry," Allen replied. His left arm was starting to ache from the weight. "Didn't really have time to think things through..."

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

"Yu, did you feel that?"

"I told you not to call me that!"

"..."

"Yeah."

"An earthquake maybe? Do earthquakes even happen on other planets?"

"How the hell should I know?"

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

The green moved slowly, stealthily. It crept around other green, going over and through. It didn't care if the other green broke on its way there. They were in the way. The other green didn't care either. As long as it was able to get there and remove it, the green would be content.

Across the branches it swiveled, twisting around a rotted blue. The blue is in the way. It is dead. It shouldn't be here. The green curled around the blue, strangling it until it broke off and fell. The blue was a nuisance, but it is gone now. All shall be well. The green continued towards its goal.

Down through the other greens, just above the emptiness. There it was. The green had reached its destination. The green must destroy it. It shouldn't be here.

The white must be removed.

*.*.*.*.*.*.

"Huh?" Allen and Jim watched as a dying blue flower fell from the canopy above them. It slowly floated past them, falling into the dark trench.

All of a sudden, something shook them. The two looked up, not seeing anything at first.

"What was– AH!" It shook them again, only this time they had dropped a few feet.

"ANOTHER PLANT? SERIOUSLY?" Allen yelled in disbelief when he saw what had shaken them. A thick green vine crawled across the branch that Clown Belt was wrapped around. It started to attack the Innocence, but to no success.

The two boy's eyes widened as they saw what the vine was doing. It was no longer trying to destroy the white ribbon. Now it was prying the Innocence off of the branch, much like how a child would pry it's sibling's fingers off of the monkey bars.

"Shit! It's trying to get rid of us!" Allen winced when they dropped another foot, a sharp pain shooting up his arm from the sudden jolt.

Morph flew out of Jim's pocket and darted towards the vine. The pink blob, now bearing teeth, attempted to attack the plant. But it was no use. Another green rope flew at the shape shifter, causing him to break apart into many smaller pink blobs. Morph yelped in surprise, reforming before he took refuge behind Timcanpy, who was now growling, his teeth bared.

The yellow golem bit into the vine, causing it to curl up slightly. Timcanpy continued to dig his teeth into the plant, unaware that another vine had started peeling at Clown Belt as well.

"Allen! Look out!"

Several more vines tightened around Allen's left arm, trying to make him loose his grip.

_Snap!_

The vine wasn't trying to untangle the white Innocence anymore. No, that was taking too much effort, using too much energy.

_Snap..._

Now the vine was breaking the branch.

_Snap!... snap..._

_SNAP!_

"AAAAHHHHHHHH!"

The shape shifter, the golem, the spacer, and the exorcist fell, descending into the dark abyss.

*.*.*.*.*.*.

The moss-covered ground was soft on her cheek. She opened her eyes, but as expected, was unable to see anything. Her shoulder ached as she sat up, looking around, the darkness so powerful that it played tricks on her eyes, for she couldn't even tell if her eyes were open.

But she knew she wasn't dead. She could still feel pain, solid ground, and the slight movement of air. She could still hear her own breathing, as uneven as it was. She could still taste the slight hint of blood where she had bit her lip. She could still smell the dirt underneath her, the moss, and the plants.

_Where am I?_

_The last thing I remember was the plant pulling me into the jungle, like it had a mind of its own._

She chuckled halfheartedly, remembering when Allen and Lavi had told her about the mission where they met Krory, about the man-eating flowers that only responded kindly when shown affection.

She sighed.

"You know, miss Lenalee, this place wouldn't be so bad if it had some purple curtains, maybe a few windows–"

"AHH! BEN?" She could now see the robot's two bright eyes shining through the darkness, the sudden light straining her eyes. "HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN STANDING THERE?"

"Hmm? Oh, I've been here for exactly three hours, twenty-four minutes, and sixteen seconds, give or take a few milliseconds. I got bored after the first eighteen minutes, so I shut down for a bit. And then a plant dropped you down here thirty-two minutes ago, and I was like 'should I wake her up?' but you looked sleepy so I decided to shut down again up until seventy-seven point one seconds ago. Seventy-eight."

"...wait, what?"

With B.E.N.'s eyes now slightly illuminating the area, Lenalee could not only see her own hands, but also the faint outlines of plants, rocks, and–

"EEK!" She cried in surprise, B.E.N. doing the same out of reaction to her scream. Scattered across the ground were bones. Dry, cracked, dead bones.

"W-where are we?" The exorcist asked B.E.N. quietly. _Just relax. I fight akuma for a living. A few skeletons isn't that big a deal. Calm down._

"I dunno," The robot replied in his usual loud voice. "It looks like some sort of cave... with lots of... dead things."

"Hmm... can you look up for a second, please?"

"Sure!" The light from his eyes acted like a flashlight, brightening each spot where he looked.

"It's all... vines," She stated curiously. The higher up the cave, the thicker the vines got.

Lenalee slowly stood up, still aching.

"Keep the light up there," She activated her Innocence, "I'm going to see if I can break through it."

The girl flew up, carefully weaving around the looser vines, as far as she could go. Once again, she tried to break through the undergrowth, and once again, the undergrowth resisted it.

_Why can't I break through it?...must be because Innocence only harms that which holds dark matter..._

She landed back on the ground next to B.E.N.

"It's no use. We'll have to find another way out."

"Okey-dokey, no problemo! We'll just–"

"What was that noise?"

It was faint, but they could hear what sounded like yelling. The sound kept getting louder and louder until, suddenly, the thick patch of vines split apart like a trap door.

"AAHHHHH! OOF!" A thick cloud of dust sprang up when they hit the soft ground.

"Allen! Jim!" Lenalee and the robot ran over to them. "Are you ok?"

"...ouch... I think so... I guess the vines broke our fall," Jim looked over at Allen.

"Bleh," The white-haired boy spit out a mouthful of dirt and moss. "Which is ironic considering those stupid plants are the reason we're in this mess."

Jim looked around. "Where are we?"

"I dunno, Jimmy, but we're _pretty sure_ it's some kind of cave."

"You don't say?" Jim said sarcastically, standing up.

"I've already tried breaking through the vines up top, but they're just too strong." Lenalee grabbed Allen's right hand, seeing as Crown Clown was still activated, and pulled him to his feet.

"There's got to be another way out," Allen said as he wiped the dirt off of his face with his sleeve. Timcanpy then landed in his hair, fluffing his wings and wrapping his tail around to lay on the boy's forehead.

"Oh! I remember feeling a faint breeze earlier," Lenalee said, recalling when she had woken up. She stood still for a moment, concentrating on feeling any movement of air. "I think it's coming from that direction." The girl pointed at the darkness.

And so, they walked on, B.E.N's eyes lighting their path.

* * *

><p>lots of yelling in this chapter XD<p>

wow, I can't believe I STILL didn't put in that one part that I was originally gonna have at the end of the last chapter, but then planned to put at the end of this one XP I didn't anticipate them being on the jungle planet this long~ So it looks like that part is gonna have to go at the end of the NEXT chapter :D

hehehe

As always, please let me know if there are any mistakes so I can fix them ^_^

And please review! It gives me inspiration and motivation to continue! *hugs*


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